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n 



l«30 



|l^ — ^^rmmr^ m' ■• • 



ADDISON'S WORKS 

VOLUME THE FOURTH. 



M'lIOEVER WISHES TO A1TAIN AN ENGLISH STYLE, FAMILIAR 
BUT NOT COARSE, AND ELEGANT BUT NOT OSTENTATIOUS, 
MUST GIVE HIS DATS AND M0IIT8 TO THE VOLUMES OF 
ADDISON. DR. JOHNSON. 



THE 

MISCELLANEOUS WORKS 



JOSEPH ADDISON. 



IN FOUR VOLDMES. 
VOL. IV. 



OXFORD, 

PUBLISHED BY D. A. TALBOYS. 

MDCCCXXX. 



l«l««M*^^^V«4VVaBM^P^P 






TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE 



JOHN LORD SOMERS, 



BARON OF EVESHAM. 



My Lord, 

There is a pleasure in owning obligations 
which it is an honour to have received, but 
should I publish any favours done me by your 
lordship, I am afiraid it would look more like 
vanity than gratitude. 

I had a very early ambition to recommend 
myself to your lordship's patronage, which yet 
increased in me as I travelled through the 
countries of which I here give your lordship 
some account : for whatever great impressions 
an Englishman must have of your lordship, 
they who have been conversant abroad will 
find them still improved. It cannot but be 
obvious to them, that though they see your 

VOL. IV. b 



Ti DEDICATION. 

lordship's admirers everywhere, they meet 
with very few of your well-wishers at Paris or 
at Rome. And I could not but observe^ when 
I passed through most of the protestant 
governments in Europe, that their hopes or 
fears for the common cause rose or fell with 
your lordship's interest and authority in 
England. 

I here present your lordship with the re- 
marks that I made in a part of these my 
travels; wherein, notwithstanding the variety 
of the subject, I am very sensible that I o£fer 
nothing new to your lordship, and can have 
no other design in this address than to declare 
that I am, 

My lord. 

Your lordship's most obliged, and 

Most obedient humble servant, 

J. ADDISON. 



PREFACE 



There is certainly no place in the world where 
a man may travel with greater pleasure and ad- 
vantage than in Italy. One finds something more 
particular in the face of the country^ and more as- 
tonishing in the works of nature^ than can be met 
with in any other part of Europe. It is the great 
school of music and paintings and contains in it all 
the noblest productions of statuary and architecture, 
both ancient and modem. It abounds with cabinets 
of curiosities^ and vast collections of all kinds of 
antiquities. No other country in the world has such 
a variety of governments^ that are so different in 
their constitutions, and so refined in their politics. 
There is scarce any part of the nation that is not 
famous in histwy, nor so much as a mountain or 
river that has not been the scene of some extra- 
ordinary action. 

As there are few men that have talents or oppor- 
tunities for examining so copious a subject, one may 



viii PREFACE. 

observe, among those who have written on Italj^ 
that different authors have succeeded best on dif- 
ferent sorts of curiosities. Some have been more 
particular in their accounts of pictures^ statues^ and 
buildings ; some have searched into libraries^ cabi- 
nets of rarities^ and collections of medals^ as others 
have been wholly taken up with inscriptions^ ruins, 
and antiquities. Among the authors of our own 
country, we are obliged to the bishop of Salisbury, 
for his masterly and uncommon observations on the 
religion and governments of Italy : Lassels may be 
useful in giving us the names of such writers as 
have treated of the several states through which he 
passed : Mr. Ray is to be valued for his observations 
on the natural productions of the place. Monsieur 
Misson has wrote a more correct account of Italy 
in general than any before him, as he particularly 
excels in the plan of the country, which he has 
given us in true and lively colours. 

There are still several of these topics that are far 
from being exhausted, as there are many new sub- 
jects that a traveller may find to employ himself 
upon. For my own part, as I have taken notice of 
several places and antiquities that nobody else has 
spoken of, so, I think, I have mentioned but few 
things in common with others, that are not either 
set in a new light, or accompanied with different 
reflections. I have taken care particularly to con- 
sider the several passages of the ancient poets 



PREFACE. ix 

^vhich have any relation to the places and curiosities 
that I met with ; for before I entered on my voyage, 
I took care to refresh my memojy among the classic 
authors, and to make such collections out of them as 
I might afterwards have occasion for. I must con- 
fess, it was not one of the least entertainments that 
I met with in travelling, to examine these several 
descriptions, as it were, upon the spot, and to com- 
pare the natural £ace of the country Avith the land- 
scapes that the poets have given us of it. However, 
to avoid the confusion that might arise from a mul- 
titude of quotations, I have only cited such verses as 
have given us some image of the place, or that have 
something else besides the bare name of it to recom- 
mend them. 



REMARKS 



ON 



SEVERAL PARTS OF ITALY, etc. 



IN THE YBAR8 1701, 170S, 1703. 



Venim ergo id est, si quis in CGelum ascendisset, naturamque 
mundi et pulchritudinexn sideruxn peitpexisiei, insuavem 
illam admirationem ei fore, quae jucundissima fiiitset, si ali- 
quem cui narraret habuisset. Ciceb. de Amic. 



REMARKS ON ITALY. 



MONACO, GENOA, ETC. 

On the twelfth of December 1699 I set out from 
Marseilles to Genoa in xi tartane, and arrived late at 
a small French port called Cassis, where the next 
morning we were not a little surprised to see the 
mountains about the town covered with green olive 
trees, or laid out in beautiful gardens, which gave 
us a great variety of pleasing prospects, even in the 
depth of winter. The most uncultivated of them 
produce abundance of sweet plants, as wild thyme, 
lavender, rosemary, balm, and myrtle. We were 
here shown, at a distance, the deserts, which have 
been rendered so famous by the penance of ]Mary 
Magdalene, who, after her arrival with Lazarus and 
Joseph of Arimathea at ^Marseilles, is said to have 
-wept away the rest of her life among these solitary 
rocks and mountains. It is so romantic a scene, 
that it has always probably given occasion to such 
chimerical relations ; for it is perhaps of this place 
that Claudian speaks in the following description : 

Est locus, eitremum qua pandit Gallia liitui 
Oceaui prcptentus aquis, uhifertur Ulysses 
Sanguine libato populum movisbc sHentenif 
lUic umbrarum temii stridors volantum 
Flsbilis auditur qnestus ; simulacra cotoni 
Pallida defuuctasque vident migrare Jigtiras, etc. 

Claud, in Eufin. lib. i. 
VOL. IV. B 



REMARKS ON ITALY. 

A place there lies on Gallia's utmost bounds* 
Where rising seas insult the frontier grounds. 
Ulysses here the blood of victims shed. 
And raised the pale assembly of the dead : 
Oft in the winds is heard a plaintive sound 
Of melancholy ghosts that hover round ; 
The lab'ring ploughman oft with horror spies 
Thin airy shapes, that o'er the furrows rise, 
(A dreadful scene !) and skim before his eyes. 

I know there is nothing more undetermined among 
the learned than the voyage of Ulysses ; some oon- 
lining it to the Mediterranean^ others extending it 
to the great ocean^ and others ascribing it to a world 
of the poet's own making : though his conversations 
with the dead are generally supposed to have been 
in the Narbon Gaul. 

Jncultoi adiit Lastiygonat Antiphatenque, etc. 
Atque hac §eu noitrai inter iunt cognita terras, 
Fabula aive novum dedit hit en^oribus orbem. 

TiBUL. lib. 4. carm. 1. 

Uncertain whether, by the winds convey 'd, 
On real seas to real snores he stray 'd ; 
Or, by the fable driven from coast to coast. 
In new imaginary worlds was lost. 

The next day we again set sail^ and made the best 
of our way, till we were forced, by contrary winds, 
into St. Remo, a very pretty town in the Genoese 
dominions. The front to the sea is not large, but 
there are a great many houses behind it, built up 
the side of the mountain to avoid the winds and 
vapours that come from sea. We here saw several 
persons that, in the midst of December, had nothing 
over their shoulders but their shirts, without com- 
plaining of the cold. It is certainly very lucky for 
the poorer sort to be born in a place that is free from 
the greatest inconvenience to which those of our 



MONACO, GENOA, etc. 3 

northern nations are subject; and^ indeed, without 
this natural benefit of their climates, the extreme 
misery and poverty that are in most of the Italian 
governments would be insupportable. There are at 
St. Remo many plantations of palm trees, though 
they do not grow in other parts of Italy. We sailed 
from hence directly for Genoa, and had a fair wind 
that carried us into the middle of the gulf, which is 
very remarkable for tempests and scarcity of fish. 
It is probable one may be the cause of the other, 
whether it be that the fishermen cannot employ 
their art with so much success in so troubled a sea, 
or that the fish do not care for inhabiting such stormy 
waters. 



•Atrum 



Defendens pisces hiemat mare Hoh. Sat. 2. lib. 2. 

While black with storms the ruffled ocean rolls, 
And from the fisher's art defends her finny shoals. 

We were forced to lie in it two days, and our ca])- 
tain thought his ship in so great danger, that he fell 
upon his knees and confessed himself to a capuchin 
who was on board with us. But at last, taking the 
advantage of a side-wind, we were driven back in a 
few hours time as far as Monaco. Lucan has given 
us a description of the harbour that we found so 
very welcome to us, after the great danger we had 
escaped. 

Quaque sub Herculeo scLcratut nomine partus 
Urget rupe cava peUigus : non Corus in ilium 
Jus habet, aut Zephyrus : solus sua littora turbat 
Circius, et tutd prohU>et statione Moweci, Lib. 1 . 

The winding rocks a spacious harbour frame. 
That from the great Alcides takes its name : 



4 REMARKS ON ITAI<Y. 

Fenc'd to the west, and to the north it lies ; 
But when the winds in southern quarters rise. 
Ships, from their anchors torn, become their sport. 
And sudden tempests rage within the port. 

On the promontory where the town of Monaco 
now stands was formerly the temple of Hercules 
IVIonoecus, which still gives the name to this small 
principality. 

Aggeribus tocer A!pinis atqut arce Mon<eci 
Descendent. Vino. iEn. 6. 

There are but three towns in the dominions of 
the prince of Monaco. The chief of them is situate 
on a rock which runs out into the sea, and is -well 
fortified by nature. It was formerly under the pro- 
tection of the Spaniard, but not many years since 
drove out the Spanish garrison and received a 
French one, which consists at present of ^ve hun- 
dred men, paid and officered by the French king. 
The officer who showed me the palace told me, with 
a great deal of gravity, that his master and the king 
of France, amidst all the confusions of Europe, had 
ever been good friends and allies. The palace has 
handsome apartments, that are many of them hung 
with pictures of the reigning beauties in the court 
of France. But the best of the furniture was at 
Rome, where the prince of Monaco resided, at that 
time ambassador. We here took a little boat to 
creep along the seashore as far as Genoa; but at 
Savona, finding the sea too rough, we were forced to 
make the best of our way by land, over very rugged 
mountains and precipices: for this road is much 
more difficult than that over mount Cennis. 

The Genoese are esteemed extremely cunning, 
industrious, and inured to hardship above the rest 



MONACO, GENOA, etc. 5 

of the Italians; which was likewise the character 
of the old Ligurians. And indeed it is no wonder^ 
ivhile the barrenness of their country continues, that 
the manners of the inhabitants do not change : since 
there is nothing makes men sharper, and sets their 
hands and wits more at work, than want. The 
Italian proverb says of the Genoese, that they have 
a sea without fish, land without trees, ana men 
without faith. The character the Latin poets have 
given of them is not much different. 

Assuetumque malo lAgurem, ViRO. Geoi^. 2. 

The hard Ligarians, a laborious kind. 

Pemix Ligus, Sil. It. lib. 8. 

Fallaces Ligures* A vs. £id. 12. 

Ajypenninicola hellator Jilius Auni 

Havd Ligurum extremus, dumfalUrefata sinebant, 

ViKG. JEn. 11. 

"^ Yet like a true Ligurian, bom to cheat, 
{At least whilst fortune favoured his deceit.) 

Vane Ligus, frustraque animis elate tuperbii, 
Nequidquam patriae tentasti luhricus artet. Id. 

Vain fool and coward, cries the lofty maid. 

Caught in the train which thou thyself hast laid. 

On others practise thy Ligurian arts ; 

Thin stratagems, and tricks of little hearts 

Are lost on me ; nor shalt thou safe retire. 

With vaunting lies to thy fallacious sire. Dryoen. 

• 

There are a great many beautiful palaces standing 
along the seashore on both sides of Genoa, which 
make the town appear much longer than it is to 
those that sail by it. The city itself makes the 
noblest show of any in the world. The houses are 
most of them painted on the outside ; so that they 
look extremely gay and lively, besides that they are 

b3 



< REMARKS ON ItALY. 

esteemed the liigheat in Europe, and stand very 
thick leather. The New-street is a double range 
of palaces from one end to the other, built wttfa tin 
excellent fancy, and fit for the (jreatest princes to 
inhabit. I cannot, however, be reconciled to their 
manner of painting several of the Genoese houses. 
Figures, perspectives, or pieces of history, are cer- 
tainly very ornamental, as they are drawn on many 
of the walls that would otherwise look too naked 
and uniform without them ; but, instead of these, 
one often tees the front of a palace covered with 
painted pillars of different orders. If these were so 
many true columns of marble, set in their proper 
architecture, they would certainly very much adorn 
the places where they stand ; but as they are now, 
they only show us that there is something wanting, 
and that the palace, which without these counterfeit 

Etilars would be beautiful in its kind, might have 
sen more perfect by the addition of sudi as are 
real. The front of the Villa Imperiale, at a mile 
distance from Genoa, without anything of this paint 
upwi it, consists of a Doric and' Corinthian row of 
pillars, and is much the handsomest of any I saw 
there. The duke of Soria's palace has the best out- 
side of any in Genoa, as that of Durazzo is the best 
furnished within. There is one room in the first 
that is hung with tapestry, in which are wrought 
the figures of the great persons that the family has 
produced; as perhaps there is no house in Europe 
that can show a longer line of heroes that have still 
acted for the good of their country. Andrew Doria 
has a statue erected to him at the entrance of the 
doge's palace, with the glorious title of deliverer of 
the commonwealth; and one of his family another, 
that calls him its preserver. In the doge's palace 



MONACO, GENOA, etc. 7 

are the rooms where the great and little conndl, 
with the two colleges^ hold their assemblies ; but as 
the state of Genoa is very poor, though several of its 
members are extremely rich, so one may observe 
infinitely more splendour and magnificence in par« 
ticular persons' houses than in those that belong to 
the public But we find in most of the states of 
JSurope, that the people show the greatest marks of 
poverty where the governors live in the greatest 
magnificence. The churches are very fine, par- 
ticularly that of the Annunciation, which looks 
wonderfully beautiful in the inside, all but one 
comer of it being covered with statues, gilding, 
and paint. A man would expect, in so very ancient 
a town of Italy, to find some considerable antiqui- 
ties ; but all they have to show of this nature is an 
old rostrum of a Roman ship, that stands over the 
door of their arsenal. It is not above a foot long, 
and perhaps would never have been thought the 
beak of a ship, had it not been found in so probable 
a place as the haven. It is all of iron, fashioned at 
the end like a boar*s head ; as I have seen it repre- 
sented on medals, and on the columnia rostrata in 
Rome. I saw at Genoa Signior Micoonis fisunous 
collection of shells, which, as father Buonani the 
Jesuit has since told me, is one of the best in Italy. 
I know nothing more remarkable in the government 
of Genoa than the bank of St. George, made up of 
such branches of the revenues as have been set 
apart and appropriated to the discharging of several 
sums that have been borrowed from private persons 
during the exigencies of the commonwealth. What- 
ever inconveniences the state has laboured under, 
they have never entertained a thought of violating 
the public credit, or of alienating any part of these 



8 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

revenues to other uses than to what they have been 
thus assigned. The administration of this bank is 
for life, and partly in the hands of the chief citizens, 
which gives them a great authority in the state, and 
a powerful influence over the common people. This 
bank is generally thought the greatest load on the 
Genoese, and the managers of it have been repre- 
sented as a second kind of senate, that break the 
uniformity of government, and destroy, in some 
measure, the fundamental constitution of the state. 
It is however very certain that the people reap no 
small advantages from it, as it distributes the power 
among more particular members of the republic, and 
gives the commons a figure : so that it is no small 
check upon the aristocracy, and may be one reason 
why the Genoese senate carries it with greater 
moderation towards their subjects than the Ve- 
netian. 

It would have been well for the republic of Genoa 
if she had followed the example of her sister of 
Venice, in not permitting her nobles to make any 
purchase of lands or houses in the dominions of a 
foreign prince. For at present the greatest among 
the Genoese, are in part subjects to the monarchy of 
Spain, by reason of their estates that lie in the king- 
dom of Naples. The Spaniards tax them very high 
upon occasion, and are so sensible of the advantage 
this gives them over the republic, that they will not 
suffer a Neapolitan to buy the lands of a Genoese, 
who must find a purchaser among his own country- 
men if he has a mind to sell. For this reason, as 
well as on account of the great sums of money which 
the Spaniard owes the Genoese, they are under a 
necessity, at present, of being in the interest of the 
French^ and would probably continue so, though all 



MONACO, GENOA, etc. 9 

the other states of Italy entered into a league against 
tliem. Genoa is not yet secure from a bomhardment> 
though it is not so exposed as formerly ; for, since 
the insult of the French, they have built a mole, 
with some little ports, and have provided themselves 
with long guns and mortars. It is easy for those 
that are strong at sea to bring them to what terms 
they please ; for, having but very little arable laud^ 
they are forced to fetch all their corn from Naples, 
Sicily, and other foreign countries ; except what 
comes to them frotn Lombardy, which probably goes 
another way, whilst it furnishes two great armies 
with provisions. Their fleet, that formerly gained so 
many victories over the Saracens, Pisans, Venetians, 
Turks, and Spaniards, that made them masters of 
Crete, Sardinia, Majorca, Minorca, Negropont, Les- 
bos, Malta, that settled them in Scio, Smyrna, 
Achaia, Theodosia, and several towns on the eastern 
confines of Europe, is now reduced to six galleys. 
When they had made an addition of but four new 
ones, the king of France sent his orders to suppress 
thepa, telling the republic at the same time, that he 
knew very well how many they had occasion for. 
This little fleet serves only to letch them wine and 
com, and to give their ladies an airing in the sum- 
mer season. The republic of Genoa has a crown and 
sceptre for its doge, by reason of their conquest of 
Corsica, where there was formerly a Saracen king. 
This indeed gives their ambassadors a more honour- 
able reception at some courts, but, at the same time, 
may teach their people to have a mean notion of their 
own form of government, and is a tacit acknowledg- 
ment that monarchy is the more honourable. The 
old Romans, on the contrary, made use of a very 
barbarous kind of politics to inspire their people 



i 



10 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

^vith a contempt of kings, whom they treated with 
infamy, and dragged at the wheels of their triumphal 
chariots. 

PAVIA, MILAN, ETC. 

From Genoa we took chaise for Milan, and by the 
way stopped at Pavia, that was once the metropolis 
of a kingdom, but is at present a poor town. We 
here saw the convent of Austin monks, who about 
three years ago pretended to have found out the 
body of the saint that gives the name to their order. 
King Luitprand, whose ashes are in the same 
church, brought hither the corpse, and was very 
industrious to conceal it, lest it might be abused by 
the barbarous nations, which at that time ravaged 
Italy. One would therefore rather wonder that it 
has not been found out much earlier, than that it is 
discovered at last. The fathers however do not yet 
find their account in the discovery they have maae ; 
» for there are canons regular, who have half the same 

i church in their hands, that will by no means allow 

it to be the bodyof the saint, nor is it yet recognised 
by the pope, ^he monks say for themselves, that 
the very name was written on the urn where the 
ashes lay, and that in an old record of the convent^ 
they are said to have been interred between the very 
wall and the altar where they were taken up. They 
have already too, as the monks told us^. begun to 
justify themselves by miracles. At the corner of 
one of the cloisters of this convent are buried the 
duke of Suffolk and the duke of Lorraine, who were 
both killed in the famous battle of Pavia. Their 
monument was erected to them by one Charles 
Parker^ an ecclesiastic^ as I learned from the in* 



■^WW^C* •■ ■« - ™ ^9 



PAVIA, MILAN, ETC. 11 

scription^ which I cannot omit transcribing^ since I 
have not seen it printed. 

Capto a milite Caesareo Francisco I. Gallonim rege in agro 
Papiensi anno 1525, 23. Feb. inter alios proceres, qui ex suis 
' in prselio occisi sunt, occubuenint duo illustrissimi principes, 
Franciscus Dux Lotharingiae, et Richardus de la Poole Anglus 
Dux SuiTolciae a rege tjranno Hen. YIII. pulsus regno. Quo- 
rum corpora hoc in csnobio et ambitu per annos 57, sine honpre 
tumulata sunt. Tandem Carolus Parker a Morley, Kichardt 
proximus consanguineus, regno Anglis a Regin^ Elizabeth^ 
ob Catholicam £dem ejectus, beneficentifi tamen Philippi regis 
Cath. Hispaniarum Monarchs Invictissiroi in Statu Medio- 
lanensi sustentatus, hoc qualecunque monumentum, pro renim 
suarum tenuitate, charissimo propinquo et illustrissimis princi- 
pibus posuit 5. Sept. 1582, et post suum exilium 23, majora et 
nonorificentiora commendans Lotharingicis. Viator precare 
quietem. 

This pretended duke of Suffolk was sir Richard 
de la Poole, brother to the earl of Suffolk, who was 
put to death by Henry the eighth. In his banish- 
ment he took upon him the title of duke of Suffolk, 
which had been sunk, in the family ever since the 
attainder of the great duke of Suffolk under the 
reign of Henry the sixth. He fought very bravely 
in the battle of Pavia, and was magnificently in- 
terred by the duke bf Bourbon, who, though an 
enemy, assisted at his funeral in mourning. 

Parker himself is buried in the same place, with 
the following inscription : 

D.O.M. 

Carolo Parchero a Morley Anglo ex illustrissima clarissimA 
stirpe. Qui Episcopus Dei, ob fidem Catholicam actus in £xi> 
lium An. xxxi. peregrinatus ab Invictiss. Phil. Rege Hispan. 
houestissimis pietatis et constantiae premiis omatus moritur 
Anno a partu Yirginis, M.D.C. xi. Men. Septembris. 



12 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

In Pavia is an university of seven colleges^ one of 
them called the college of Borromee^ very large, and 
neatly built. There is likewise a statue in brass of 
Marcus Antonius on horsebacki which the people of 
the place call Charles the fifths and some learned 
men Constantine the Great. 

Pavia is the Ticinum of the ancients, which took 
its name from the river Ticinus, which runs by it, 
and is now called the Tesin. This river falls into 
the Po, and is excessively rapid. The bishop of 
Salisbury says, that he ran down with the stream 
thirty miles in an hour, by the help of but one 
rower. I do not know therefore why Silius Italicus 
has represented it as so very gentle and still a river 
in the beautiful description he has given us of it. 

CaruUas Ticinvs aquas, et stagna vadoso 

Perspicuvs $ervat turbari nesciaj'undo, 

Ac nitidum viridi lente trahit amne liquorem ; 

Vix credos labi : ripis tarn mitis opacis 

Argutos inter volucrum certamine cautvs, 

SomniJ'eram ducit lucenti gurgite lympham^ Lib. 4. 

Smooth and untroubled the Ticinus flows, 

And through tie crystal stream the shining bottom shows : 

Scarce can!: !i e sight discover if it moves ; 

So wond'rous slow amidst the shady groves, 

And tuneful birds that warble on its sides. 

Within its gloomy banks the limpid liquor glides. 

A poet of another nation would not have dwelt so 
long upon the clearness and transparency of the 
stream ; but in Italy one seldom sees a river that is 
extremely bright and limpid, most of them falling 
down from tlje moiaitains that make their waters 
very troubled and muddy, whereas the Tesin is only 
an outlet of that vast lake which the Italians now 
call the Lago JMaggiore. 



PAVIA, MILAN, ETC. 13 

I saw between Pavia and Milan the convent of 
Carthusians^ which is very spacious and beautiful. 
Their church is extremely fine^ and curiously adorn- 
ed^ but of a Gothic structure. 

I could not stay long in Milan without going to 
see the great church that I had heard so much of, 
but was never more deceived in my expectation 
than at my first entering : for the fronts which was 
all I had seen of the outside^ is not half finished, 
and the inside is so smutted with dust, and the 
smoke of lamps, that neither the marble, nor the 
silver, nor brass works show themselves to an ad- 
vantage. This vast Gothic pile of building is all of 
marble, except the roof, which would have been of 
the same matter with the rest, had not its weight 
rendered it improper for that part of the building. 
But for the reason I have just now mentioned, the 
outside of the church looks much whiter and fresher 
than the inside; for where the marble is so often 
washed with rains, it preserves itself more beautiful 
and unsullied, than in those parts that are not at all 
exposed to the weather. That side of the church, 
indeed, which faces the Tramontane wind, is much 
more unsightly than the rest, by reason of the dust 
and smoke that are driven against it. This profusion 
of marble, though astonishing to strangers, is not 
very wonderful in a country that has so many veins 
of it within its bowels. But though the stones are 
cheap, the working of them is very expensive. It is 
generally said there are eleven thousand statues 
about the church ; but they reckon into the account 
every particular figure in the history pieces, and 
several little images which make up the equipage of 
those that are larger. There are, indeed, a great 
multitude of such as are bigger than the life: I 

VOL. IV. c 



14 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

reckoned above two hundred and fifty on the outside 
of the church, though I only told three sides of it; 
and these are not half so thick set as they intend 
them. The statues are all of marble, and generally 
well cut ; but the most valuable one they have is a 
St. Bartholomew, new-flead, with his skin hanging 
over his shoulders : it is esteemed worth its weight 
in gold: they have inscribed this verse on the 
pedestal, to show the value they have for the 
workman : 

Non me Praxiteles sed Marcus Jinxit Agratu 

Lest at the sculptor doubtfully you guess, 
'Tis Marc Agrati, not Praxiteles. 

There is just before the entrance of the choir, a 
little subterraneous chapel, dedicated to St. Charles 
Borromee, where I saw his body in episcopal robes, 
lying upon the altar in a shrine of rock-crystal. His 
chapel is adorned with abundance of silver-work : he 
was but two-and-twenty years old when he was 
chosen archbishop of Milan, and forty-six at his 
death ; but made so good use of so short a time, by 
his works of charity and munificence, that his coun- 
trymen bless his memory, which is still fresh among 
them. He was canonized about a hundred years 
ago: and, indeed, if this honour were due to any 
man, I think such public-spirited virtues may lay a 
juster claim to it, than a sour retreat from mankind, 
a fiery zeal against heterodoxies, a set of chimerical 
visions, or of whimsical penances, which are gene- 
rally the qualifications of Roman saints. Miracles, 
indeed, are required of all who aspire to this dig- 
nity, because they say an hypocrite may imitate a 
saint in all other particulars, and these they attri- 
bute in a great number to him I am speaking of. 



PAVIA, MILAN, ETC. 15 

His merit, and the importunity of his countrymen, 
procured his canonization before the ordinary time ; 
for it is the policy of the Roman church not to allow 
this honour ordinarily, till fifty years after the 
death of the person who is candidate for it; in 
which time it may be supposed that all his contem- 
poraries will be worn out, who could contradict a 
pretended miracle, or remember any infirmity of the 
saint. One would wonder that Roman catholics 
who are for this kind of worship, do not generally 
address themselves to the holy apostles, who have a 
more unquestionable right to the title of saints than 
those of a modern date ; but these are at present 
quite out of fashion in Italy, where there is scarce a 
great town which does not pay its devotions in a 
more particular manner to some one of their own 
making. This renders it very suspicious, that the 
interests of particular families, religious orders, con- 
vents, or churches, have too great a sway in their 
canonizations. When I was at Milan I saw a book 
newly published, that was dedicated to the present 
head of the Borromean family, and entitled, A Dis- 
course on the Humility of Jesus Christ, and of 
St. Charles Borromee. 

The great church of Milan has two noble pulpits 
of brass, each of them running round a large pillar 
like a gallery, and supported by huge figures of the 
same metal. The history of our Saviour, or rather 
of the blessed virgin (for it begins with her birth, 
and ends with her coronation in heaven, that of our 
Saviour coming in by way of episode), is finely cut in 
marble by Andrew Bifly. This church is very rich 
in relics, which run up as high as Daniel, Jonas, 
and Abraham. Among the rest they show a frag- 
ment of our countryman Becket, as, indeed, there 



16 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

are very few treasuries of relics in Italy that have 
not a tooth or a bone of this saint. It would be 
endless to count up the riches of silver^ gold^ and 
precious stones that are amassed together in this 
and several other churches of Milan. I was told^ 
that in Milan there are sixty convents of women, 
eighty of men, and two hundred churches. At the 
Celestines is a picture in fresco of the marriage of 
Cana, very much esteemed ; but the painter, whether 
designedly or not, has put six fingers to the hand of 
one of the figures : they show the gates of a church 
that St. Ambrose shut against the emperor Theodo-^ 
sius, as thinking him unfit to assist at divine service, 
till he had done some extraordinary penance for 
his barbarous massacreing the inhabitants of Thessa- 
lonica. That emperor was, however, so far from 
being displeased with the behaviour of the saint, 
that at his death he committed to him the education 
of his children. Several have picked splinters of 
wood out of the gates for relics. There is a little 
chapel lately re-edified, where the same saint bap- 
tized St. Austin. An inscription upon the wall of it 
says, that it was in this chapel, and on this occasion, 
that he first sung his Te Deum, and that his great 
convert answered him verse by verse. In one of 
the churches I saw a pulpit and confessional, very 
finely inlaid with lapis lazuli, and several kinds of 
marble, by a father of the convent. It is very lucky 
for a religious, who has so much time on his hands, 
to be able to amuse himself with works of this na- 
ture; and one often finds particular members of 
convents, who have excellent mechanical geniuses, 
and divert themselves, at leisure hours, with paint- 
ing, sculpture, architecture, gardening, and several 
kinds of handicrafts. Since I have mentioned con- 



PAVIA, MILAN, ETC. 17 

fessioiials^ I shall set down here some inscriptions 
ihat I have seen over them in Roman catholic coun- 
tries^ which are all texts of scripture^ and r^ard 
either the penitent or the father. Ahi^ Ostende Te 
ad Sacerdotem — ^Ne taceat pupilla oculi tui — Ibo 
ad patrem meum et dicam, JPater peccavi — Soluta 
emnt in Coelis — Redi Anima mea in Requiem tuam 
— Vade, et ne deinceps pecca — Qui vos audita me 
audit — Venite ad me omnes qui fatigati estis et 
onerati — Corripiet me Justus in miserioordia — Vide 
si via iniquitatis in me est^ et deduc me in via 
aetema — Ut audiret gemitus compeditomm. I saw 
the Ambrosian library, where, to show the Italian 
genius^ they have spent more money on pictures 
than on books. Among the heads of several learned 
men I met with no Englishman, except bishop 
Fisher, whom Henry the eighth put to death for not 
owning his supremacy. Books are, indeed^ the least 
part of the furniture that one ordinarily goes to see 
in an Italian library, which they generally set off 
with pictures, statues, and other ornaments, where 
they can afford them, after the example of the old * 
Greeks and Romans. 



-Plena omnia gypio 



Chrysippi inveniat. Nam perfectUrimut horum est 
Si quis Aristotelem similem vel Pittacon emit, 
Etjubet archetypes pluteum servare Cleanthas, 

Juv. Sat. 2. 

Chrysippus* statue decks thy library — 

Who makes his study finest is most read ; 

The dolt, that with an Aristotle's head, 

Carv'd to the life, has once adom'd his shelf. 

Strait sets up for a Stagyrite himself. Tate. 

In an apartment behind the library are several 
rarities often described by travellers, as Brugears 

c3 



18 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

Elements^ a head of Titian by his own hand^ a 
manuscript in Latin of Josephus^ which the bishop of 
Salisbury says was written about the age of Tbeodo- 
siuSj and another of Leonardus Vincius^ which king 
James the first could not procure^ though he prof- 
fered for it three thousand Spanish pistoles. It con- 
sists of designings in mechanism and engineering: 
I was shown in it a sketch of bombs and mortars^ s» 
they are now used. Canon Settala's cabinet i& 
always shown to a stranger among the curiosities of 
Milan^ which I shall not be particular upon, the 
printed account of it being common enough. Among 
its natural curiosities I took particular notice of a 
piece of crystal that enclosed a couple of drops, 
which looked like water when they were shaken, 
though, perhaps, they ara nothing but bubbles of 
air. It is such a rarity as this that I saw at Ven- 
dome in France, which they there pretend is a tear 
that our Saviour shed over Lazarus, and was gathered 
up by an angel, who put it in a little crystal vial, 
and made a present of it to Mary Magdalene. The 
famous pere Mabillon is now engaged in the vindi- 
cation of this tear, which a learned ecclesiastic, in 
the neighbourhood of Vendome, would have sup- 
pressed, as a false and ridiculous relic, in a book that 
he has dedicated to his diocesan, the bishop of Blois. 
It is in the possession of a Benedictine convent, 
which raises a considerable revenue out of the devo- 
tion that is paid to it, and has now retained the 
most learned father of their order to write in its 
defence. 

It was such a curiosity as this I have mentioned, 
that Claudian has celebrated in about half a score 
epigrams: 



PAVIA, MILAN, Etc. Id 

SolUms indomitum glades Alpina rigarem 

Sumebat, nimiojam preeiosa gelu. 
Nee potuit toto tnentiri carport gemmam, 

Sed medio marmt proditor orbe latex : 
AucttLS honos ; liquidi crescunt mimcula taxi, 

Et coruervat^ plus meruistis aqiue. 

Deep in the snowy Alps a lump of ice 

By frosts was hardened to a migh^ price ; 

Proof to the sun, it now securely lies. 

And the warm dog-star*s hottest rage defies : 

Yet still unripen'd in the dewy mines, 

Witliin the ball a trembling water shines. 

That through the crystal darts its spurious rays. 

And the proud stone's original betrays ; 

But common drops, when thus with crystal mix*d. 

Are valued more, than if in rubies fix*d. 

As I walked through one of the streets of Milan^ 
I was surprised to read the following inscription^ 
concerning a barber that had conspired with the 
commissary of health and others to poison his fellow- 
citizens. There is a void space where his house 
stood, and in the midst of it a pillar^ superscribed 
Colonne Infame. The story is told in handsome 
Latin^ which I shall set down^ as having never seen 
it transcribed. 

Hie, ubi haec Area patens est, 

Surgebat olim Tonstrina 

Jo* Jacobi Mors : 
Qui fact^ cum Gulielmo Platea publ. Sanit. Commissario 

£t cum aliis Conspiratione, 

Dum pestis atrox saeviret. 

Lethiieris unguentis hue et illuc aspersis 

Plures ad diram mortem compulit. 
Hos igitur ambos, hostes patris judicatos, 

Excelso in Plaustro 
Candenti prius vellicatos forcipe 

£t dexter^ mulctatos manu 
"Roth infringi 
Kotieque intextos post horas sex jugulari. 



20 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

Comburi delude, 
Ac, ne quid tarn Scelestoram hominum reliqui sit, 
Publicatis bonis 
Cineres in flumen piojici 
Senatus jussit : 
Cujus rei memoria sterna ut sit, 

Hanc domum, Sceleris officinam, 

Solo aequari, 
Ac nunquam in posteium refici, 
Et erigi Columnam, 
Quae vocatur Infamis, 
Idem ordo mandavit. 
Procul hinc procul ergo 

Boni Gives, 
Ne Vos Infelix Infame solum 

Commaculet i 
M. D. C. XXX. Kal. Augusti. 
FraBside Pub. Sanitatis M. Antonio Montio Senatore R. Jus^ 
titis Cap. Jo. Baptist^ Vicecomit. 

The citadel of Milan is thought a strong fort in 
Italy> and has held out formerly after the conquest 
of the rest of the duchy. The governor of it is 
independent on the governor of Milan ; as the Per- 
sians used to make the rulers of provinces and for- 
tresses of different conditions and interests^ to prevent 
conspiracies. 

At two miles' distance from Milan there stands a 
building that would have been a masterpiece in its 
kind had the architect designed it for an artificial 
echo. We discharged a pistol^ and had the sound 
returned upon us above nfty-six times^ though the 
air was very foggy. The first repetitions follow one 
another very thick^ but are heara more distinctly in 
proportion as they decay. There are two parallel 
walls which beat the sounds back on each other till 
the undulation is quite worn out, like the several 
reverberations of the same image &om two opposite 
looking-glasses. Father Kircher has taken notice of 



PAVIA, MILAN, ETC. 21 

this particular echo^ as fether Bartolin has done 
since in his ingenious discourse on sounds. The 
state of Milan is like a vast garden^ surrounded by 
a noble mound- work of rocks and mountains: in- 
deed^ if a man considers the face of Italy in general^ 
one would think that nature had laid it out into 
such a variety of states and governments as one finds 
in it. For as the Alps at one end^ and the long 
range of Appenines that passes through the body of 
it> branch out on all sides into several different di- 
visions; they serve as so many natural boundaries 
and fortifications to the little territories that lie 
among them. Accordingly we find the whole country 
cut into a multitude of particular kingdoms and 
commonwealths in the oldest accounts we have of it ; 
till the power of the Romans^ like a torrent that 
overflows its banks^ bore down all before it, and 
spread itself into the remotest comers of the nation. 
But as this exorbitant power became unable to sup- 
port itself, we find the government of Italy again 
broken into such a variety of subdivisions, as natu- 
rally suits with its situation. 

In the court of Milan^ as in several others in Italy> 
there are many who fall in with the dress and car- 
riage of the French. One may, however, observe a 
kind of awkwardness in the Italians, which easily 
discovers the airs they give themselves not to be 
natural. It is indeed very strange there should be 
such a diversity of manners where there is so small a 
difference in the air and climate. The French are 
always open, ^miliar, and talkative: the Italians, 
on the contrary, are stiff, ceremonious, and reserved. 
In France every one aims at a gaiety and sprightli- 
ness of behaviour, and thinks it an accomplishment 
to be brisk and lively : the Italians, notwithstanding 



2J REMARKS ON ITALY, 

their natural fieriness of temper, affect always to ap- 
pear sober and sedate ; insomuch that one sometimes 
meets young men wallting the streets mth spectacles 
OB their noses, that they may be thought to have im- 
paired their sight by much study, and seem more 
grave and judicious than their neighbours. This 
difference of manners proceeds chiefly from difference 
of education : in France it is usual to bring their 
children into company, and to cherish in them, JVom 
their infancy, a kind of forwardness and assurance : 
besides that, the French apply themselves more uni- 
versally to their exercises than any other nation in 
the world, so that one seldom sees a young gentle- 
man in France that does not fence, dance, and ride 
in some tolerable perfection. These agitations of the 
body do not only give them a free and easy carriage, 
but have a kind of mechanical operation on the 
mind, by keeping the animal spirits always awake 
and in motion. But what contributes most to this 
light airy humour of the French, is the free conver- 
sation that is allowed them with their women, which 
does not only communicate to them a certain vivacity 
of temper, but makes them endeavour after such a 
behaviour as is most taking with the sex. 

The Italians, on the contrary, who are excluded 
from making their court this way, are for recom- 
mending themselves to those they converse with by 
their gravity and wisdom. In Spain, therefore, 
where there are fewer liberties of this nature al- 
lowed, there is something still more serious and i 
composed in the manner of the inhabitants. But as 
mirth is more apt to make proselytes than melan- \ 
choly, it is observed that the Italians have many of 
them for these late years given very far into the I 
modes and freedoms of the French; which prevail : 



PAVIA, MILAN, ETC. 23 

more or less in the courts of Italy, as they lie at a 
smaller or greater distance from France. It may be 
here worth while to consider -how it comes to pass, 
that the common people of Italy have in general so 
very great an aversion to the French, which every 
traveller cannot but be sensible of, that has passed 
through the country. The most obvious reason is 
certainly the great difference that there is in the 
humours and manners of the two nations, which 
always works more in the meaner sort, who are not 
able to vanquish the prejudices of education, than 
with the nobility. Besides that, the French humour, 
in regard of the liberties they take in female conver- 
sations, and their great ambition to excel in all com- 
panies, is in a more particular manner very shocking 
to the Italians, who are naturally jealous, and value 
themselves upon their great wisdom. At the same 
time the common people of Italy, who run more into 
news and politics than those of other countries, have 
all of them something to exasperate them against the 
king of France. The Savoyards, notwithstanding 
the present inclinations of their court, cannot forbear 
resenting the infinite mischiefs he did them in the 
last war. The Milanese and Neapolitans remember 
the many insults he has offered to the house of 
Austria, and particularly to their deceased king, for 
whom they still retain a natural kind of honour and 
affection. The Genoese cannot forget his treatment 
of their doge, and his bombarding their city. The 
Venetians will tell you of his leagues with the 
Turks ; and the Romans of his threats to pope In- 
nocent the eleventh, whose memory they adore. It 
is true that interest of state and change of circum- 
stances may have sweetened these reflections to the 
politer sort> but impressions are not so easily worn 



34 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

out of the minds of the vulgar. That, however, 
which I take to be the principal motive among most 
of the Italians, for their favouring the Germans 
above the French, is this, that they are entirely per- 
suaded it is for the interest of Italy to have Milan 
and Naples rather in the hands of the first than of 
the other. One may generally observe, that the 
body of a people has juster views for the public 
good, and pursues them with greater uprightness 
than the nobility and gentry, who have so many 
private expectations and particular interests, which 
hang like a false bias upon their judgments, and 
may possibly dispose them to sacrifice the good of 
their country to the advancement of their own for- 
tunes ; whereas the gross of the people can have no 
other prospect in changes and revolutions, than of 
public blessings that are to diffuse themselves through 
the whole state in general. 

-To return to Milan r I shall here set down the 
description Ausonius has given of it, among the rest 
of his great cities. 

Et J>I«Ji<l((tni Tnira omnia, copia rtrum : 
lBnMnier<E cuJlffjue domut.Jacvnda lirorum 
Iitgtiiia, et morn lieti : turn dupUce mum 
Amflijicala led iptciei, populiijue aduptas 
Circat, It inelnii molei evntata tAfalri.- 
Temptuj Polatin^que atctt, opMlettHpis JUbn^Ca, 
El ngii HtTcixUi celtbrit tut hoaare (aimcii, 
Cunctaqae mornmreii ortiala ptrUtiila lignil, 
Maniaqiitin vattif armiim ctrainiiata labro. 
Omnia ^b* mognii opmim tieht amvlaformis 
ExttUuiit, rucjuncta premit vicinia Uime. 

Milan wild plenty and with wealth o'erflows. 
And num'rous streets and cleanly dwellings sboirs 
The people, bleas'd with nature's happy force. 
Are eloquent and cheeriiil in discouree ; 



PAVIA, MILAN, ETC. 25 

A circus, and a theatre, invites 

Th' unruly mob to races and to fights. 

Moneta, consecrated buildings grace. 

And the whole town redoubled walls embrace ; 

Here spacious baths and palaces are seen. 

And intermingled temples rise between ; 

Here circling colonnades the ground inclose, 

And here the marble statues breathe in rows : 

Profusely grac'd the happy town appears. 

Nor Home itself her beauteous neighbour fears. 



BRESCIA, VERONA, PADUA. 

From Milan we travelled through a very pleasant 
country to Brescia^ and by the way crossea the river 
Adda, that falls into tne Laeo di Como, which 
Virgil calls the lake Larius, and running out at the 
other end^ loses itself at last in the Po^ which is the 
great receptacle of all the rivers of this country. 
The town and province of Brescia have freer access 
to the senate of Venice, and a quicker redress of in- 
juries, than any other part of their dominions. They 
have always a mild and prudent governor^ and live 
much more happily than their fellow-subjects; for 
as they were once a part of the Milanese, and are 
now on their frontiers^ the Venetians dare not ex- 
asperate them, by the loads they lay on other pro- 
vinces, for fear of a rev<dt ; and are forced to treat 
them with much more indulgence than the Spaniards 
do their neighbours, that they may have no tempta- 
tion to it. Brescia is famous for its iron works. A 
small day's journey more brought us to Verona. 
We saw the lake Benacus in our way^ whioh the 
Italians now call Lago di Garda ; it was so rouch 
with tempests when we passed by it, that it brought 
into my mind VirgiFs ncSble descripti<m oi it: 

VOL. IV. D 



as REMARKS ON ITALY. 

Adde laeuM tanloi, le Lari maximet ttque 
Flu^iltMt etfteraitu auurgtm, Benace, nurjii». 
Here Tei'd by winter itorms Beaacus raves, 
Confiii^d with working aands and rolling wavei ; 
Rough and tumultuous like a sea it lies. 
So loud the tempest roan, so high the billows Hm. 

This lake perfectly resemblea a sea, when it is 
worked up by storms. It is tbirty-five miles in 
length, and twelve in breadth. At the tower end 
«f it we crossed the Mincio. 

TariU ingtni ubifieiibtu tmt 

Mindiu, et ttHtrd pritexil arundint rjpu. 

Vmo. Geoko. iii. 14. 

Wheie the slow Miuciua througb the vallej strays ; 

Where cooling streams invite the flocks to drink. 

And reeds delead the winding water's biink. DkymM. 

The river Adige runs through Verona ; so much 
is the situation of the town changed from what it 
was in Silius Italicus his time. 

Vtnma Atkni cireumjtaa. lib. S. 

Verona by the circling Adige bound. 

This is the only great river in Lombardy that 
does not fall into the Po; which it must have done, 
had it run but a little farther before its entering 
the Adriatic. The rivers are all of them mentioned 
by Clandian. 

Vtnrtiaque enetior ainnfi 

Megni von ciet, Frondertt^ut Aumiifa rtp» 
Colla Umnl, pulcher Ticinvi, et Addua tiiu 
Cmiiat, tt vtld Athais, lardviqu* atatu 
Minfiui, ingiw noean cuntarge/u ora TimauuM. 

Sexto Com. Hon. 
Venelia't rivers, snmmon'd all aTound, 
Hear tlie loud call, and answer to (he sound : 



BRESCIA, VERONA, PADUA. H7 

Her dropping locks the silver Tessin rears. 

The blue transparent A.dda next appears. 

The rapid Adige then erects her bead. 

And Mincio rising slowly from his bed. 

And last Timavus, that with ea^er force 

From nine wide mouths comes gushing to his coune. 

His Larius is doubtless an imitation of Virgirs 
Benacus. 



•Umbroid vestit qua littut olivd 



Larius, et dulci tntntitur Nereajiuctu. De Bel. Get. 

The Larius here, with groves of olives crown'd. 
An ocean of fresh water spreads around. 

I saw at Verona the famous amphitheatre, that 
with a few modern reparations has all the seats 
entire. There is something very noble in it^ though 
the high wall and corridors that went round it are 
almost entirely ruined, and the area is quite filled 
up to the lower seat, which was formerly deep 
enough to let the spectators see in safety the combats 
of the wild beasts and gladiators. Since I have 
Claudian before me, I cannot forbear setting down 
the beautiful description he has made of a wild 
beast newly brought from the woods^ and making its 
first appearance in a full amphitheatre. 

Utfera^ qua mantes nuper dimisit avitoSf 
Altorumque eisul nemorum damnatur arerut 
MuneribuSt commota ruit ; vir murmure contra 
Hortatur, nixusque genu venabula tendit ; 
Ilia pavet strepituis, cuneosque erecta theatri 
Respicit, et tanti miratur sibila vulgu 

In RuF. lib. 2. 

So rushes on his foe the grisly bear. 

That, banish'd from the hills and bushy brakes, 

His old hereditary haunts forsakes. 

Condemned the cruel rabble to delight, 

His angry keeper goads him to the fight. 



2B REMARKS ON ITALY, 

Bent on his knee the savage glares around, 
Scar'd with the mighty crowd's promiscuous sound ; 
Then rearing on his hinder paws retires. 
And the vast hissing multitude admires. 

There are some other antiquities in Verona, of 
which the principal is the ruin of a triumphal arch 
erected to Flaminius, where one sees old Doric 
pilJars without any pedestal or basis, as Vitruvius 
has described them. I have not yet seen any gar- 
dens in Italy worth taking notice of. The Italians 
fall as short of the French in this particular, as they 
excel them in their palaces. It must however be 
said, to the honour of the Italians, that the French 
took from them the first plans of their gardens, as 
well as of their water works; so that their sur- 
passing of them at present is to be attributed rather 
to the greatness of their riches, than the excellence 
of their taste. I saw the terrace-garden of Verona, 
that travellers generally mention. Among the 
churches of Verona, tliat of St. George is the 
handsomest : its chief ornament is the martyrdom of 
the saint, drawn by Paul Veronese, as there are 
many other pictures about the town by the same 
hand. A stranger is always shown the tomb of 
Pope Lucius, who lies buried in the dome. I saw 
in the same church a monument erected by the pub- 
lic to one of their bishops : the inscription says, that 
there was between him and his maker, summa neces-' 
' situdo, summa similitudo. The Italian epitaphs are 
often more extravagant than those of other countries, 
as the nation is more given to compliment and 
hyperbole. From Verona to Padua we travelled 
through a very pleasant country : it is planted thick 
with rows of white mulberry trees, that furnish food 
for great quantities of silk-worms with their leaves. 



BRESCIA, VERONA, PADUA. 29 

is the swine and poultry conaume the fruit. The 
trees themselves ser\re^ at the same time, as so manj 
stays for their vines, which hang all along like gar- 
lands from tree to tree. Between the several ranges 
lie fields of corn, which, in these warm countries, 
ripens much better among the mulberry shades, than 
if it were exposed to the open sun. This was one 
reason why the inhabitants of this country^ when I 
passed through it^ were extremely apprehensive of 
seeing Lombardy the seat of war, which must have 
made miserable havoc among their plantations ; for 
it is not here as in the com fields of Flanders, where 
the whole product of the place rises from year to 
year. We arrived so late at Vicenza, that we had 
not time to take a full sight of the place. The next 
day brought us to Padua. St. Anthony, wht> lived 
above five hundred years ago, is the great saint to 
whom they here pay their devotions. He lies buried 
in the church that is dedicated to him at present, 
though it was formerly consecrated to the blessed 
virgin. It is extremely magnificent, and very richly 
adorned. There are narrow clefts in the monument 
that stands over him, where good catholics rub their 
beads^ and smell his bones, which they say have in 
them a natural perfume^ though very like apoplectic 
balsam ; and what would make one suspect that they 
rub the marble with it^ it is observed that the scent 
is stronger in the morning than at night. There 
are abundance of inscriptions and pictures hung up 
by his votaries in several parts of the church : for it 
is the way of those that are in any signal danger to 
implore his aid ; and if they come ofiT safe they call 
their deliverance a miracle, and perhaps hang up 
the picture or description of it in the church. This 
custom spoils the beauty of several Roman catholic 

d3 



30 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

churches^ and often covers the walls with wretched 
daubings^ impertinent inscriptions, hands^ legs^ and 
arms of wax, with a thousand idle offerings of the 
same nature. 

They sell at Padua the life of St. Anthony, which 
is read with great devotion; the most remarkable 
part of it is his discourse to an assembly of fish. As 
the audience and sermon are both very extraordi- 
nary, I will set down the whole passage at length. 

" Non curando gli heretici il suo parlare, egli si 
come era alia riva del mare, dove sbocca il fiume 
Marecchia, chiamb da parte di Dio li pesci, che 
venissero a sentir la sua santa parola. £t ecco che 
di subito sopra 1' acque nuotando gran moltitudine 
di varii, et diversi pesci, e del mare, e del fiume, si 
unirono tutti, secondo le specie loro, e con bell 
ordine, quasi che di ragion capaci stati fossero, at- 
tenti, e cheti con gratioso spettacolo s'ac<;ommodaro 
per sentir la parola di Dio. Cib veduto il santo 
entro al cuor suo di dolcezza stillandosi, et per altre- 
tanta maraviglia inarcando le ciglia, della obedientia 
di queste irragionevoli creature cosi comincib loro a 
parlare. Se bene in tutte le cose create (cari, et 
amati pesci) si scuopre la potenza, et providenza in- 
fi nita di Dio, come nel cielo, nel sole, nella luna, 
nelle stelle, in questo mondo inferiore, nel huomo, e 
nelle altre creature perfette, nondimeno in voi parti- 
colarmente lampeggia e risplende la bonta della 
maesta divina ; perche se bene siete chiamati rettili, 
mezzi fra pietre, e bruti, confinati nelli profondi 
abissi delle ondeggiante acque : agitati sempre da 
fluttj : mossi sempre da procelle ; sordi al' udire, 
mutoli al parlare, et horrid i al vedere ; con tutto cib 
in voi maravigliosamente si scorge la Divina gran- 
dezza ; e da voi si cavano li maggiori misterii della 



BRESCIA, VERONA, PADUA. 31 

bonta di Dio, ne mai si parla di voi nellft scrittum 
sacra, che non yi sia ascosto qualche profondo Sacra- 
mento; credete voi^ che sia senza grandissimo mis- 
terio^ che il primo dono fiatto dalF onnipotente Iddio 
all' huomo fosse di Yoi pesci ? Credete, voi che non 
sia misterio in questo^ che di tutte le creature, e di 
tutti gl' animali si sien fatti sacrificii, eccetto, che di 
voi pesci ? Credete, che non vi sia qualche secrete in 
questo, che Christo nostro salvatore dall' agnelo pas- 
quale in poi, si compiacque tanto del cibo di voi 
pesci ? Credete^ che sia a caso questo, che dovendo il 
redentor del mondo, pagar^ come huomo, il censo a 
Cesare la volesse trovare nella bocca di un pesce? 
Tutti, tutti sono misteri e sacrament! : percio siete 
particolarmente obligati a lodare il vostro Creatore : 
amati pesci di Dio havete ricevuto V essere^ la vita, 
il moto^ el sense ; per stanza vi ha dato il liquido 
elemento deir acqua^ secondo che alia Yostra natu- 
rale inclinatione conviene: ivi ha fatti amplissimi 
alberghi, stanze, caverne, grotte, e secreti luogi a 
voi piu che sale regie^ e regal palazzi, cari, e grati ; 
et per propria sede havete Tacqua, elemento diafano, 
transparente^ e serapre lucido quasi cristallo^ e verro ; 
et dalle piu basse, e profonde vostre stanze scorgete 
do che sopra acqua b si £a, o nuota ; havete gli occhi 
quasi di lince, o di Argo, et da causa non errante 
guidati, seguite cio che vi giova, et aggrada; et 
fiiggite cib che vi nuoce, havete natural desio di con- 
servarvi secondo le spetie vostre, fase^ oprate et cami- 
nate eve natura vi detta senza contrastro alcuno; 
ne algor d'invemo, ne calor di state vi offende, b 
nuoce; siasi per sereno, b turbato il cielo, che alii 
vostri humidi alberghi ne frutto, ne danno apporta ; 
siasi pure abbondevole de suoi tesori, b scarsa de 
ftuoi ^uiti la terra, che a voi nulla giova; piova. 



i 



n REMARKS ON ITALY. 

taoai« saetti, lampa^, h subissi il mondo^ che a Toi 
cib poco importa ; verde^ primayera^ scaldi la state, 
fruttifichi Tautanno, et assideri li invemo^ qaesto 
non vi rileva punto : ne trappaasar del' hore n^ correr 
de giorni^ ne volar de mesi^ ne fuggir d*anni^ ne 
mutar de tempi^ ne cangiar de stagioni vi dan pen- 
dero alcuno^ ma sempre sicura, et tranquilla vita 
lietamente yivere: O quanto, O quanto grande la 
Maesta di Dio in vol si scuopre, O quanto mirabile 
la potenza sua ; O quanto stupenda, et mararigliosa 
sua providenza; poi che fra tutte le creature dell' 
uniYerso vol solo non sentisti il diluvio universale 
dell' acque; ne provasti i danni, che egii fece al 
monde ; e tut to questo ch'io ho detto dovrebbe muo- 
vervi a lodar Dio^ a ringratiare sua divina maesta di 
tanti e cosi singolari beneficii, che vi ha fatti, di 
tante gratie, che vi ha conferite, di tanti favori, di 
che vi na fatti degna ; per tanto^ se non potete sno- 
dar la lingua a ringratiar il vostro benefattore, et 
non sapete con parole esprimer le sue lodi^ fatele 
segno di riverenza almeno ; chinatevi al suo nome ; 
mostrate nel modo che potete sembiante di gratitu- 
dine; rendetevi benevoli alia bonta sua, m quel 
miglior modo che potete ; O sapete, non siate sco- 
noscenti de* suoi beneficii, et non siate ingrati de* 
suoi favori. A questo dire, O maraviglia grande, 
come si ouelli pesci havessero havuto humano intel- 
letto, e oiscorso, congesti di profonda humilta, con 
riverenti sembianti di religione, chinarono la testa^ 
blandiro co'l corpo, quasi approvando cib che detto 
havea il benedetto padre S. Antonio.'* 

*' When the heretics would not regard his preach- 
ing he betook himself to the seashore, where the 
river Marecchia disembogues itself into the Adriatic. 
He here called the fish together in the name of God^ 



BRESCIA, VERONA, PADUA. 33 

that they might hear his holy word. The fish came 
swimming towards him in such vast shoals, both 
from the sea and from the river, that the sorfkoe of 
the water was quite covered with their multitudes. 
They quickly ranged themselves, according to their 
several species, into a very beautiful congregation, 
and, like so many rational creatures, presented 
themselves before him to hear the word of Qod. 
St. Antonio was so struck with the miraculous obedi- 
ence and submission of these poor animals, that he 
found a secret sweetness distilling upon his soul, 
and at last addressed himself to them m the follow- 
ing words : 

*' Although the infinite power and providence of 
God, my dearly beloved fish, discovers itself in all 
the works of his creation, as in the heavens, in the 
sun, in the moon, and in the stars, in this lower 
world, in man, and in other perfect creatures; 
nevertheless the goodness of the divine majesty 
shines out in you more eminently, and appears after 
a more particular manner, than in any other created 
beings. For notwithstanding you are comprehended 
under the name of reptiles, partaking of a middle 
nature between stones and beasts, and imprisoned 
in the deep abyss of waters ; notwithstanding you 
are tost among billows, thrown up and down by tem- 
pests, deaf to hearing, dumb to speech, and terrible 
to behold: notwithstanding, I say, these natural 
disadvantages, the divine greatness shows itself in 
you after a very wonderful manner. In you are 
seen the mighty mysteries of an infinite goodness. 
The holy scripture has always made use of you, as 
the types and shadows of some profound sacrament. 
" Do you think that, without a mystery, the first 
present that God Almighty made to man, was of 



mim^mmmm^K^^Km^mammmmmmmmmmmm^mm^^^^^^^^^^^^^^m 



34 REMARIiS ON ITALY. 

jou, O ye fishes ? Do you think that without a mys- 
tery^ among all creatures and animals which were 
appointed for sacrifices^ you only were excepted, 
O ye fishes? Do you think there was nothing 
meant by our Saviour Christ, that next to the pas- 
chal lamb he took so much pleasure in the food of 
you, O ye fishes? Do you think it was by mere 
chance, that when the Redeemer of the world was to 
pay tribute to Caesar, he thought fit to find it in the 
mouth of a fish ? These are all of them so many- 
mysteries and sacraments, that oblige you in a more 
particular manner to the praises of your Creator. 

" It is from God, my beloved fish, that you have 
received being, life, motion, and sense. It is he 
that has given you, in compliance with your natural 
inclinations, the whole world of waters for your 
habitation. It is he that has furnished it with 
lodgings, chambers, caverns, grottoes, and such mag- 
nificent retirements as are not to be met with in the 
seats of kings, or in the palaces of princes; you have 
the water for your dwelling, a clear transparent 
element, brighter than crystal ; you can see from its 
deepest bottom everything that passes on its surface; 
you have the eyes of a lynx, or of an Argus ; you 
are guided by a secret and unerring principle, de- 
lighting in everything that may be beneficial to you, 
and avoiding everything that may be hurtful ; you 
are carried on by a hidden instinct to preserve your- 
selves, and to propagate your species; you obey in 
all your actions, works, and motions, the dictates 
and suggestions of nature, without the least repugn 
nancy or contradiction. 

The colds of winter and the heats of summer are 
equally incapable of molesting you. A serene or a 
clouded sky are indifferent to you. Let the earth 



BRESCIA, VERONA, PADUA. 35 

abound in fruits or be cursed with scarcity, it has no 
influence on your welfare. You live secure in rains 
and thunders, lightnings and earthquakes ; you have 
no concern in the blossoms of spring, or in the glow- 
ings of summer, in the fruits of autumn, or in the 
frosts of winter. You are not solicitous about hours 
or days, months or years; the variableness of the 
weather, or the change of seasons. 

'^ In what dreadful majesty, in what wonderful 
power, in what amazing providence, did God Al- 
mighty distinguish you among all the species of 
creatures that perished in the universal deluge! 
You only were insensible of the mischief that had 
laid waste the whole world ! 

" All this, as I have already told you, ought to 
inspire you with gratitude and praise towards the 
divine majesty, that has done so great things for 
you, granted you such particular graces and privi- 
leges, and heaped upon you so many distinguishing 
favours. And since for all this you cannot employ 
your tongues in the praises of your benefactor, and 
are not provided with words to express your grati- 
tude, make at least some sign of reverence; bow 
yourselves at his name ; give some show of gratitude, 
according to the best of your capacities; express 
your thanks in the most becoming manner that you 
are able, and be not unmindful of all the benefits he 
has bestowed upon you. 

'^ He had no sooner done speaking, but behold a 
miracle ! The fish, as though they had been endued 
with reason, bowed down their heads with all the 
marks of a profound humility and devotion, moving 
their bodies up and down with a kind of fondness, 
as approving what had been spoken by the blessed 
father St. Antonio.'' 



36 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

The legend adds^ that after many heretics who 
were present at the mirade, had been converted by 
it, the saint gave his benediction to the fish and dis- 
missed them. 

Several other the like stories of St. Anthony are 
represented about his monument, in a very fine 
basso relievo. 

I could not forbear setting down the titles given 
to St. Anthony in one of the tables that hangs up to 
him, as a token of gratitude from a poor peasant 
who fancied the saint had saved him from breakii^ 
his neck. 

Sacradssimi pusionis Bethlehemitici 

Lilio candidiori delicio, 
Seraphidum soli fulgidissimo, 

Celsissimo sacrae sapientis tholo, 
Prodigiorum patratori potenUssiiDO, 
Mortis, erroris, calaroitatis, leprae, daemonis, 
Dispensatori, correctori, liberatori, curatori, fiigatori, 
Sancto, sapienti, pio, potenti, tremendo, 
^grotonim et naufragantium salvatori 

Prssentissimo, tutissimo. 
Membrorum restitutori, vinculorum confractori, 
Berum perditaruin inventori stupendo, 

Periculorum omnium profligatori 
Magno, mirabili, 
'J'er SaDcto, 

Antonio Paduano, 
Fielissimo post Deumej usque Virgineam matrem 

Frotectori et sospitatori suo, etc. 

The custom of hanging up limbs in wax, as well 
as pictures, is certainly derived from the old heathens, 
who used, upon their recovery, to make an ofiTering 
in wood, metal, or day, of the part that had been 
afi^icted with a distemper, to the deity that delivered 
them, I have seen, I believe, every limb of a human 
body figured in iron or clay, which were formerly 



BRESCIA, VERONA, PADUA. 37 

made on this occasion, among the several collections 
of antiquities that have been shown me in Italy. 
The church of St. Justina, designed by Palladio^ is 
the most handsome, luminous^ disencumbered build- 
ing in the inside that I have ever seen, and is 
esteemed by many artists one of the finest works in 
Italy. The long nef consists of a row of five cupo- 
las, the cross-one has on each side a single cupola 
deeper and broader than the others. The martyrdom 
of St. Justina hangs over the altar, and is a piece of 
Paul Veronese. In the great town-hall of Padua 
stands a stone superscribed Lapis Vituperiu Any 
debtor that wiU swear himself not worth five pounds, 
and is set by the bailiffs thrice with his bare buttocks 
on this stone in a full hall, clears himself of any 
further prosecution from his creditors : but this is a 
punishment that nobody has submitted to these four 
and twenty years. The university of Padua is of 
late much more regular than it was formerly, though 
it is not yet safe walking the streets after sflnset. 
There is at Padua a manufacture of doth^ which has 
brought very great revenues into the republic. At 
present the English have not only gained upon the 
Venetians in the Levant, which used chiefly to be 
supplied from this manufacture, but have great 
quantities of their cloth in Venice itself; few of the 
nobility wearing any other sort^ notwithstanding the 
magistrate of the pomps is obliged by his office to see 
that nobody wears the cloth of a foreign country. 
Our merchants^ indeed^ are forced to make use of 
some artifice to get these prohibited goods into port. 
-What they here show for the ashes of Livy and 
Antenor is disregarded by the best of their own 
antiquaries. 
: The pretended tomb of Antenor put me in mind 

VOL. IV. E 



3B REMARKS ON ITALY- 

of the latter part of Virgil's deitcription, which gives 

us the original of Padna : 

Anienor potvit, mediii tlapsul Achivil 
Itlyricoi penetrare tirtut atqiu inthna tuda 
Rtgna Liburnnrum, afmitem tujKrarf Timavi: 

It taart proruplum, et peiago prenit arva totuxnti ; 

Hie tamen iile uriwrn Palajii, sideiqiit iocavit 

Tevcrvmm, et genii mmKn dedit, arnoiquMJait 

Traia: n<me placid& compettui pace quiacit. £n. I. 

AatenOT, from the midst of Grecian hosU, 

Could pass secure, and pierce th' llljrian coasts, 

WheK rolling down the steep, Timavus raves. 

And throuah nine channels diaembo^es his mves. 

At length he founded Padua's happ; seat. 

And gave his Trojans a secure retreat : 

There fii'd their arms, and there renew'd their names ; 

And there in quiet lies. 

From Fadaa I went down to the river Brent in the 
ordinary ferry, which brought me in a day's time to 



Having often heard Venice represented as one of 
the most defensible cities in the world, I took care 
to inform myself of the particulars in which its 
streng:th consists. And these I find are chiefly 
owing to its advantageous situation ; for it has 
neither rocks nor fortifications near it, and yet is, 
perhaps, the most impregnable town in Europe. It 
stands at least four miles from any part of the terra 
Anna, nor are the shallows that lie about it ever 
frozen hard enough to bring over an army from the 
land-side ; the constant flux or reflux of the sea, or 
the natural mildness of the climate, hindering the 



VENICE. 39 

ice from gathering to any thickness, which i& an 
advantage the Hollanders want, when they have 
laid all their country under water. On the side 
that is exposed to the Adriatic^ the entrance is so 
diiBicult to hit, that they have marked it out with 
several stakes driven into the ground, which they 
would not fail to cut upon the first approach of an 
enemy's fleet. For this reason they have not forti- 
fied the little islands that lie at the entrance to the 
best advantage, which might otherwise very easily 
command all the passes that lead to the city from 
the Adriatic. Nor could an ordinary fleet, with 
bomb-vessels, hope to succeed against a place that 
has always in its arsenal a considerable number of 
galleys and men-of-war ready to put to sea on a very 
short warning. If we could therefore suppose them 
blocked up on all sides, by a power too strong for 
them, both by sea and land, they would be able to 
defend themselves against everything but famine; 
and this would not be a little mitigated by the great 
quantities of fish that their seas abound with, and 
that may be taken up in the midst of their very 
streets, which is such a natural magazine as few 
other places can boast of. 

Our voyage writers will needs have this city in 
great danger of being left, within an age or two, oh 
the terra firma ; and represent it in such a manner, 
as if the sea was insensibly shrinking from it, and 
retiring into its channel. I asked several, and 
among the rest father Coronelli the state's geogra- 
pher, of the truth of this particular, and they all 
assured me that the sea rises as high as ever, though 
the great heaps of dirt it brings along with it are 
apt to choke up the shallows; but that they are in 
no danger of losing the benefit of their situation, so 



40 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

long as tliey are at the charge of removing . these 
banks of mud and sand. One may see abundance 
of them above the surface of the water, scattered up 
and down like so many little islands, when the tide 
is low ; and thev are these that make the entrance 
for ship)s difficult to such as are not used to them, 
for the deep canals run between them, which the 
Venetians are at a great expense to keep free and 
open. 

This city stands very convenient for commerce. 
It has several navigable rivers that run up into the 
body of Italy, by which they might supply a great 
many countries with fish and other commodities ; 
not to mention their opportunities for the I/evant, 
and each side of the Adriatic. But, notwithstand-* 
ing these conveniences, their trade is far from being 
in a flourishing condition, for many reasons. The 
duties are great that are laid on merchandises. 
Their nobles think it below their quality to engage 
in traffic. The merchants who are grown rich, and 
able to manage great dealings, buy their nobility, 
and generally give over trade. Their manufactures 
of cloth, glass, and silk, formerly the best in £urope, 
are now excelled by those of other countries. . They 
are tenacious of old laws and customs to their great 
prejudice, whereas a trading nation must be still for 
new changes and expedients, as different junctures 
and emergencies arise. The state is at present very, 
sensible of this decay in their trade, and as a noble 
Venetian, who is still a merchant, told me, they 
will speedily find out some method to redress it; 
possibly by making a free port, for they look with 
an evil eye upon Leghorn, which draws to it most 
of the vessels bound for Italy. They have hitherto 
been so negligent in this particular^ that many think 



VENICE. 41 

the great duke's gold has had no small inflnence in 
their councils. 

Venice has several particulars which are not to 
be found in other cities^ and is therefore very enter- 
taining to a traveller. It looks, at a distance, like a 
great town half floated by a deluge. There are 
canals everywhere crossing it, so that one may go to 
most houses either by land or water. This is a very 
great convenience to the inhabitants ; for a gondola 
with two oars at Venice, is as magnificent as a coach 
and six horses with a large equipage in another 
country; besides that, it makes all carriages ex- 
tremely cheap. The streets are generally paved 
with brick or freestone, and always kept very neat, 
for there is no carriage, not so much as a chaur, that 
passes through them. There is an innumerable 
multitude of very handsome bridges, all of a single 
arch, and without any fence on either side> which 
would be a great inconvenience to a city less sober 
than Venice. One would, indeed, wonder that 
drinking is so little in vogue among the Venetians, 
who are in a moist air and a moderate climate, and 
have no such diversions as bowling, hunting, walk- 
ing, riding, and the like exercises to employ them, 
without doors. But as the nobles are not to con- 
verse too much with strangers, they are in no dan- 
ger of learning it ; and they are generally too dis- 
trustful of one another for the freedoms that are 
used in such kind of conversations. There are 
many noble palaces in Venice. Their furniture is 
not commonly very rich, if we except the pictures, 
which are here in greater plenty than in any other 
place in Europe, from the hands of the best masters 
of the Lombard school; as Titian, Paul Veronese, 
and Tintoret. The last of these is in greater esteem 

£3 



42 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

at Venice than in other parts of Italy. The roonur 
are generally hung with gilt leather^ which they 
cover on extraordinary occasions with tapestry, and 
hangings of greater value. The flooring is a kind 
of red plaister made of brick ground to powder, and 
afterwards worked into mortar. It is rubbed with 
oil^ and makes a smooth, shining, and beautiful sur- 
face. These particularities are chiefly owin^ to the 
moisture of the air, which would have an m efiect 
on other kinds of furniture, as it shows itself too 
visibly in many of their finest pictures. Though 
the Venetians are extremely jealous of any great 
fame or merit in a living member of their common* 
wealth, they never fail of giving a man his due 
praises when they are in no danger of suffering 
from his ambition. For this reason, though there 
are a great many monuments erected to such as 
have l^n benefactors to the republic, they are 
generally put up after their deaths. Among the 
many eulogiums that are given to the doge Pisauro, 
who had been ambassador in England, his epitaph 
says: In Anglid Jacobi Regis ooiium mird caUi- 
duate celatum mird sagacttate rimatus priscam 
benevoleniiam Jirmavit. The particular palaces, 
churches, and pictures of Venice are enumerated 
in several little books that may be bought on the 
place, and have been faithfully transcribed by many 
voyage writers. When I was at Venice, they were 
putting out very curious stamps of the several 
edifices which are most famous for their beauty or 
magnificence. The arsenal of Venice is an island 
of about three miles round. It contains all the 
stores and provisions for war that are not actually 
employed. There are docks for their galleys and 
men-of-war, most of them full, as well as work- 



VENICE. 43 

houses for all land and naval preparations. That 

part of it where the arms are laia makes a great 

sho-w^ and was indeed very extraordinary about a 

hundred years ago^ but at present a great part of its 

fbrnitnre is grown useless. There seem to be almost 

as many suits of armour as there are guns. The 

swords are old-fashioned and unwieldy, in a very 

great number, and the firearms fitted with locks (^ 

little convenience, in comparison of those that are 

now in use. The Venetians pretend they could set 

ont^ in case of great necessity, thirty men-of-war, a 

hundred galleys, and ten galeases, though I cannot 

conceive how they could man a fleet of half the 

number. It was certainly a mighty error in this 

state to affect so many conquests on the terra firma, 

which has only served to raise the jealousy of the 

christian princes, and about three hundred years ago 

bad like to have ended in the utter extirpation of 

the commonwealth: whereas, had they applied 

themselves with the same politics and industry to 

the increase of tbeir strength by sea, they might 

perhaps have had all the islands of the Archipelago 

in their hands, and, by consequence, the greatest 

fleet, and the most seamen of any other state in 

Europe. Besides that, this would have given no 

jealousy to the princes their neighbours, who would 

have enjoyed their own dominions in peace, and 

have been very well contented to have seen so strong 

a bulwark against all the forces and invasions of the 

Ottoman empire. 

This republic has been much more powerful than 
it is at present, as it is still likelier to sink than in- 
crease in its dominions. It is not impossible but 
the Spaniard may, some time or other, demand of 
them Creme, Brescia, and Bergame, which have 



44 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

been torn from the Milanese ; and in case a wai* 
should arise upon it^ and the Venetians lose a single 
battle^ they might be beaten off the continent in a 
single summer, for their fortifications are very in-^ 
considerable. On the other side, the Venetians are 
in continual apprehensions from the Turk, who will 
certainly endeavour at the recovery of the Morea, as 
soon as the Ottoman empire has recruited a little of 
its ancient strength. They are very sensible that 
they had better have pushea their conquests on the 
other side of the Adriatic into Albania, for then 
their territories would have lain tc^ther, and have 
been nearer the fountain head to have received suc- 
cours on occasion ; but the Venetians are under 
articles with the emperor, to resign into his hands 
whatever they conquer of the Turkish dominions^ 
that has been formerly dismembered from the em* 

Eire. And having already very much dissatisfied 
im in the Frioul and Dalmatia, they dare not think 
of exasperating him farther. The pope disputes 
with them their pretensions to the Folesin, as the 
duke of Savoy lays an equal claim to the kingdom 
of Cyprus. It is surprising to consider with what 
heats these two powers have contested their title to 
a kingdom that is in the hands of the Turk. 

Among all these difficulties the republic will still 
maintain itself, if policy can prevail upon force ; for 
it is certain the Venetian senate is one of the wisest 
councils in the world, though at the same time, if 
we believe the reports of several that have been 
well versed in their constitution, a great part of 
their politics is founded on maxims which others do 
not think consistent with their honour to put in 
practice. The preservation of the republic is that 
to which all other considerations submit. To en- 



VENICE. 45 

courage idleness and luxury in the nobility^ to 
cherish ignorance and licentiousness in the clergy^ 
to keep alive a continual faction in the common 
people^ to connive at the viciousness and debauchery 
of convents^ to breed dissensions among the nobles 
of the terra firma^ to treat a brave man with scorn 
and infamy ; in shorty to stick at nothing for the 
public interest^ are represented as the refined parts 
of the Venetian wisdom. 

Among all the instances of their politics^ there is 
none more admirable than the great secrecy that 
reigns in their public councils. The senate is gene- 
rally as numerous as our house of commons^ if we 
only reckon the sitting members^ and yet carries its 
resolutions so privately^ that they are seldom known 
till they discover themselves in the execution. It is 
not many years since they had before them a great 
debate concerning the punishment of one of their 
admirals^ which lasted a month together^ and con- 
cluded in his condemnation ; yet was there none of 
his friends, nor of those who had engaged warmly in 
his defence^ that gave him the least intimation of 
what was passing against him, till he was actually 
seized, and in the hands of justice. 

The noble Venetians think themselves equal at 
least to the electors of the empire, and but one de- 
gree below kings; for which reason they seldom 
travel into foreign countries, where they must un- 
dergo the mortification of being treated like private 
gentlemen : yet it is observed of them, that they 
discharge themselves with a great deal of dexterity 
in such embassies and treaties as are laid on them 
by the republic ; for their whole lives are employed 
in intrigues of state, and they naturally give them- 
selves airs of kings and princes, of which the mini- 



46 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

sters of other nations are only the representatives. 
Monsieur Amelot reckons, in his time^ two thousand 
five hundred nobles that had voices in the great 
council ; but at present, I am told, there are not at 
most fifteen hundred, notwithstanding the addition 
of many new families since that time. It is very 
strange, that with this advantage they are not able 
to keep up their number, considering that the 
nobility spreads equally through all the brothers, 
and that so very few of them are destroyed by the 
wars of the republic. Whether this may be im- 
puted to the luxury of the Venetians, <Nr to the ordi- 
nary celibacy of the younger brothers, or to the last 
plague which swept away many of them, I know 
not. They generally thrust the females of their 
fiunilies into convents, the better to preserve their 
estates. This makes the Venetian nuns famous for 
the liberties they allow themselves. They have 
operas within their own walls, and often go out of 
their bounds to meet their admirers, <h* they are 
very much misrepresented. They have many of 
them their lovers, that converse with them daily at 
the grate, and are very free to admit a visit from a 
stranger. There is, indeed, one of the Cornaras, 
that not long ago refused to see any under a prince. 
The carnival of Venice is everywhere talxed of. 
The great diversion of the place at that time, as well 
as on all other high occasions, is masking. The 
Venetians, who are naturally grave, love to give 
in to the follies and entertainments of such seasons, 
when disguised in a false personage. They are, in- 
deed, under a necessity of finding out diversions 
that may agree with the nature of the place, and 
make some amends for the loss of several pleasures 
which may be met with on the continent. These 



VENICE. 47 

disguises give occasion to abundance of love-adven- 
tures ; for there is something more intriguing in the 
amours of Venice, than in those of other countries ; 
and I question not but the secret history of a carni- 
val would make a collection of very diverting novels. 
Operas are another great entertainment of this 
aeason. The poetry of them is generally as exqui* 
sitely ill as the music is good. The arguments are 
often taken irom some celebrated action of the an- 
cient Greeks or Romans, which sometimes looks 
ridiculous enough ; for who can endure to hear one 
of the rough old Romans squeaking through the 
mouth of an eunuch, especially when they may 
choose a subject out of courts where eunuchs are 
really actors, or represent by them any of the soft 
Asiatic monarchsi The opera that was most in 
vosue, during my stay at Venice, was built on the 
foUowing subject. Ciesar and Scipio are rivals for 
Cato's daughter. Caesar's first words bid his soldiers 
£y, for the enemies are upon them. " Si leva 
Cesare, e dice a Soldati. A la fugga. A' lo Scam- 
po.'' The daughter gives the preference to Caesar, 
which is made the occasion of Cato's death. Before 
he kills himself, you see him withdrawn into his 
library, where, among his books, I observed the 
titles of Plutarch and Tasso. After a short solilo- 
quy he strikes himself with the da^er that he holds 
in his hand, but being interrupted by one of his 
friends, he stabs him for his pains, and by the 
violence of the blow unluckily breaks the dagger on 
one of his ribs, so that he is forced to despatch him- 
self by tearing up his first wound. This last cir- 
cumstance puts me in mind of a contrivance in the 
opera of St. Angelo, that was acted at the same 
time. The king of the play endeavours at a rape. 



48 REMARKS ON ITALY, 

but the poet being reaolved to save his heroine's 
honour, has so ordered it, that the king always acts 
with a great case-knife stuck in his gir£e, which the 
lady snatches from him in the struggle, and so de- 
fends henelf. 

The Italian poets, besides the celebrated smooth- 
ness of their tongue, hare tt particular advantage 
above the writers of other nations in the difference 
of their poetical and prose langnage. There are, 
indeed, sets of phrases that in all countries are pecu- 
liar to the poets, but among the Italians there axe 
not only uentences, but a multitude of particular 
words that never enter into common discourse. 
They have such a different turn and polishing for 
poetical use, that they drop several of their letters, 
and appear in another form, when they come to be 
ranged in verse. For this reason the Italian opera 
seltbrn sinks into a poorness of language, but, amidst 
all the meanness ana familiarity of the thoughts, has 
something beautiful and sonorous in the expression. 
Without this natural advantage of the tongue, their 
present poetry would appear wretchedly low and 
vulgar, notwithstanding tne many strained allegories 
that are bo much in use among the writers ot this 
nation. The English and French, who always use 
the same words in verse as in ordinary conversation, 
are forced to raise their language with metaphors 
and figures, or, by the pompousness of the whole 
phrase, to wear off any littleness that appears in the 

E articular parts that compow it. This makes our 
lank verse, where there is no rhyme to support the 
expression, extremely difficult to such as are not 
masters in the tongue, especially when they write 
on low subjects ; and it is probably for this reason 
that Milton has made use of such frequent transpoei- 



VENICE. 49 

lions, Latinisms, antiquated words and phrases, that 
he might the better deviate from vulgar and ordinary 
exm-essions. 

The comedies that I saw at Venice, or indeed in 
any other part of Italy, are very indifferent, and 
more lewd than those of other countries. Their 
poets have no notion of genteel comedv, and &11 
into the most filthy double meanings miaginable, 
when they have a mind to make their audience 
merry. There is no part generally so wretched as 
that of the fine gentleman, especially when he con- 
verses with his mistress ; for then the whole dialogue 
is an insipid mixture of pedantry and romance. 
But it is no wonder that the poets of so jealous and 
reserved a nation fail in such conversations on the 
stage, as they have no patterns of in nature. There 
are four standing characters which enter into every 
piece that comes on the stage, the Doctor, Harle- 
quin, Pantaloon, and Coviello. The doctor's charac- 
ter comprehends the whole extent of a pedant, that 
with a deep voice and magisterial air breaks in 
upon conversation, and drives down all before him : 
everything he says is backed with quotations out of 
Galen, Hippocrates, Plato, Virgil, or any author 
that rises uppermost, and all answers from his com- 
panion are looked upon as impertinencies or inter- 
ruptions. Harlequin*s part is made up of blunders 
and absurdities; he is to mistake one name for 
another, to forget his errands, to stumble over 
queens, and to run his head against every post that 
stands in his way. This is all attended with some- 
thing so comical in the voice and gestures, that a 
man, who is sensible of the folly of the part, can 
hardly forbear being pleased vnth it. Pantaloon is 
generally an old cully, and Coviello a sharper. 

VOL. IV. p 



50 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

I have seen a translation of the Cid^ acted at Bo- 
lognsL, which would never have taken^ had they not 
found a place in it for these buffoons. All four of 
them appear in masks that are made like the old 
Roman personee, as I shall hare occasion to observe 
in another place. The French and Italians have 
probably derived this custom of showing some of 
their characters in masks, from the Greek and Ro- 
man theatre. The old Vatican Terence has at the 
head of every scene the figures of all the persons 
that are concerned in it^ with the particular dis- 
guises in which they acted ; and I remember to 
have seen in the Villa Mattheio an antique statue 
masked, which was perhaps designed for Gnatho in 
the eunuch, for it agrees exactly with the figure he 
makes in the Vatican manuscript. One would 
wonder, indeed, how so polite a people as the an- 
cient Romans and Athenians should not look on 
these borrowed faces as unnatural. They might do 
very well for a cyclops or a satyr, that can have no 
resemblance in human features ; but for a flatterer, 
a miser, or the like characters, which abound in our 
own species, nothing is more ridiculous than to re- 
present their looks by a painted vizard. In persons 
of this nature the turns and motions of the face are 
often as agreeable as any part of the action. Could 
we suppose that a mask represented never so natu- 
rally the general humour of a character, it can never 
suit with the variety of passions that are incident to 
every single person in the whole course of a play. 
The grimace may be proper on some occasions, but 
is too steady to agree with all. The rabble, indeed, 
are generally pleased at the first entry of a disguise, 
but the jest grows cold even with them too when it 
comes on the stage in a second scene. 



VENICE, 51 

Since I am on this subject^ I cannot forbear men- 
tioning a custom at Venice, which they tell me is 
particular to the common people of this country, of 
singing stanzas out of Tasso. They are set to a 
pretty solemn tune, and when one begins in any 
part of the poet, it is odds but he will be answered 
by somebody else that overhears him ; so that some- 
times you have ten or a dozen in the neighbourhood 
of one another, taking verse after verse, and running 
on with the poem as far as their memories will carry 
them. 

On Holy Thursday, among the several shows that 
are yearly exhibited, I saw one that is odd enough, 
and particular to the Venetians. There is a set of 
artisans, who by the help of several poles, which 
they lay across each other's shoulders, build them- 
selves up into a kind of pyramid ; so that you see a 
pile of men in the air of four or five rows risine one 
above another. The weight is so equally custri- 
buted, that every man is very well able to bear his 
part of it, the stories, if I may so call them, growing 
less and less as they advance higher and higher. A 
little boy represents the point of the pyramid, who, 
after a short space, leaps off, with a great deal of 
dexterity, into the arms of one that catches him at 
the bottom. In the same manner the whole build- 
ing falls to pieces. I have been the more particular 
on this, because it explains the following verses of 
Claudian, which show that the Venetians are not 
the inventors of this trick. 

Vel qui more avium teu jaculentur in auroi, 
Corporaque adificent ceUri crescentia nexu, 
Qufirum compoiitam puer amentatus in arcem 
Emicet, et, vinctus plants vel crurU}us Jutrens, 
Fendula libratojigat vestigia saltu, 

CLiiUD. de Mall. Theod, Cons. 



53 REMABKS ON ITALY. 

Men, pU'd on men, with active leaps unit. 
And build the breathing fabric to the ikiei ; 
A sprightly youth, above the topmoit rov. 
Points the tall pyramid and croinu the show. 

Thongh we meet with th'e Veneti in the old 
poets, we city of Venice is too modern to find s 
place among them. SannazanuB'a epigram ia too 
well known to be inserted. The same poet has 
celebrated this dty in two other places of hu poema; 

Quit Ftnttt mimnilo prrferal urfii t 

Una iniliirtaiifnifuic rimul orbit hdiet. 
Salve Jtat&m ngiiu, aJtc puUhtrrima Rmnc 

£mvta, qu4c terrii, guc dtminarix ajuii. 
Tu libi vtl regit civet facii ; decta, O lux 

Aumnir, per quam libera tuTba lumiu : 
Per quam barbariei noftu nun inip*ral, el ul 

Eirrricni malro ciariut or^ niltl .' Lib. 3. el. 1. 

Venetia stands with endleu beauties crown'd, 
And as a woild within herMlf is fonnd. 
Hail, queen of Italy 1 foi yean to come 
The mighty rival of immartal Rome I 
Nalioni and seas are in thy stales enroll'd, 
And king! among thy citizens are told. 
Ausoma's brightest anumedt I by thee 
She sits a so v reign, uneoslav'd and free ; 
By thee, the rude barbarian chu'd away. 



Thou too shaltfall by time or baib'rous (bes. 
Whose circling walls the sev'n fam'd hills enclose ; 
And thou, whose rival tow'rs invade the skies, 
And, from amidst the waves, with equal glory rise. 



FERRARA, RAVENNA, RIMINI^ 53 



FERRARA, RAVENNA, RIMINI. 

At Venice I took a bark for Ferrara, and in my 
way thither saw several mouths of the Po, by whicn 
it empties itself into the Adriatic. 

Q^o rum alhu per pinguiu culta 

In mare pwrpureum violentior effluit amnii, 

ViRO. Georg. 4. 

which is trae^ if understood only of the rivers of 
Italy. 

Lucan's description of the Po would have been 
very beautiful^ had he known when to have given 
over : 

Quoque magis nullum tellus te solvit in amnem 
EridanuSfJrticttuq'ue evolvit in tsquora sylvas, 
Hesperiamque exhaurk aquis : kuncfabula primum 
PopuUdJluvium ripcu umbratse corond : 
Cumque diem pronum tramverso limite ducens 
Succendit Phastonjlagrantibus athera Unit ; 
Gurgitibus raptis penitus tellure perustd, 
Hunc habuisse pares Phcebeis igmbus undas. Lib. 2. 

The Po that, rushing with uncommon force, 
O'ersets whole woods in its tumultuous course. 
And rising from Hesperia's wat'iy veins, 
Th' exhausted land of all its moisture drains. 
The Po, as sings the fable, first convey'd 
Its wond'ring current through a popular shade : 
For when young Phaeton mistook his way. 
Lost and confounded in the blaze of day. 
This river, with surviving streams supplied. 
When all the rest of the whole earth were dried. 
And nature's self lay ready to expire, 
Quench'd the dire flame that set the world on fire. 

f3 



54 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

The poet's reflections follow. 

Non minor hie Nilo, ti turn per flana jacentit 
JEgyfti Libycat Nilw stagnaret arenat, 
Non minor hie Istro, niti quod, dum permeat orbem 
liter, eaturos in qualibet aquorafontet- 
Aecipit, et Scythicas exit non tolus in undas* 

Nor would the Nile more wat'r^ stores coDtaiii> 
But that he stagnates on his Libyan plain : 
Nor would the Danube ran with greater force» 
Bat that he gathers in his tedioas course 
Ten thousand streams, and swelling as he flows. 
In Scythian seas the glut of rivers Uirows, 

That is^ says Scaliger, the Eridanas would be 
bigger than the Nile and Danube^ if the Nile and 
Danube were not bigger than the Eridanus. What 
makes the poet's remark the more improper, the very 
reason why the Danube is greater than tne Po, as he 
assigns it, is that which really makes the Po as great 
as it is ; for before its fall into the gulf, it receives 
into its channel the most considerable rivers of Pied- 
mont, Milan, and the rest of Lombardy. 

From Venice to Ancona the tide comes in very 
sensibly at its stated periods, but rises more or less 
in proportion as it advances nearer the head of the 
gulf. Lucan has run out of his way to describe the 
phenomenon, which is indeed very extraordinary to 
those who lie out of the neighbourhood of the great 
ocean; and, according to his usual custom, lets his 
poem stand still that he may give way to his own 
reflections. 

Qudqtiejacet littus dubium, quod terra, fretumque 
Vindicat altemis vicibus, cumfunditur ingens 
Oceanut, vel cum refugis sefluctibui aufert, 
Ventv^ ab extremo pelagus sic axe volutet, 
DestittMtque/erens : an sidere mota secund» 



i 



FERRARA, RAVENNA, RIMINI. 55 

Ttthyot unda vag^ lunaribtu isstuet horis : 
Plammiger an Titan, ut aUntes hauriat undat, 
^rigat oceanum fluctutque ad sidera toUat, 
Qtuerite, quo$ agitat mundi labor: at mihi semper 
Tu, qtuBcunque moves tam crebros causa meatus, 
Ut superi voUure, late. Lib. 1. 

Wash'd with snccessive seas, the doubtful strand 

By turns is ocean, and by turns is land : 

Whether the winds in distant regions blow. 

Moving the world of waters to and fire : 

Or waning moons their settled periods keep 

To swell the billows and ferment the deep ; 

Or the tir'd sun, his vigour to supply. 

Raises the floating mountains to the sky. 

And slakes his thirst within the mighty tide. 

Do ^ou who study nature's works decide : 

Whilst I the dark mysterious cause admire. 

Nor into what the gods conceal presumptuously inquire. 

At Ferrara I met with nothing extraordinary. 
The town is very large^ but extremely thin of 
people. It has a dtadel^ and something like a 
fortification running round it^ but so large that it 
requires more soldiers to defend it than the pope has 
in his whole dominions. The streets are as beautiful 
as any I have seen^ in their length, breadth, and 
regularity. The Benedictines have the finest con- 
vent of the place. They showed us in the church 
Ariosto's monument : his epitaph says, he was No* 
bilitate generis atque animi clarus, in rebus jmhlicis 
admintstrandisy in regendis populis, in ^ravissimis 
et summis Pontificis legatiombus prudentta consiUo, 
eloquentia prceslaniissimus, 

i came down a branch of the Po, as far as Al- 
berto, within ten miles of Ravenna. AU this space 
lies miserably uncultivated till you come near Ra- 
venna, where the soil is made extremely fruitful, 
and shows what much of the rest might be, were 



t- 



56 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

there hands enough to manage it to the best ad- 
vantage. It is now on both sides the road very 
marshy, and generally overgrown with rushes^ which 
made me fancy it was once floated by the sea, that 
lies within four miles of it. Nor could I in the least 
doubt it when I saw Ravenna, that is now almost at 
the same distance irom the Adriatic, though it was 
formerly the most famous of all the Roman ports. 

One may guess at its ancient situation firom 
Martial's 

Meliusque ran4B garriant Ravennatesm Lib. 3. 

Ravenna's frogs in better music croak. 

and the description that Silius Italicus has given us 
of it : 

Quiqtte gravi renw limosis segniter undis 

Lenta paludo84e proscindunt stagna Raveniue, Lib. 8. 

Encumbered in the mud, their oars divide 
With heavy strokes the thick unwieldy tide. 

Accordingly the old geographers represent it as 
situated among marshes and shallows. The place 
which is shown for the haven is on a level with the 
town, and has probably been stopped up by the great 
heaps of dirt that the sea has thrown into it ; for all 
the soil on that side of Ravenna has been left there 
insensibly by the sea*s discharging itself upon it for 
so many ages. The ground must have been formerly 
much lower, for otherwise the town would have lain 
under water. The remains of the Pharos, that stand 
about three miles from the sea, and two from the 
town, have their foundations covered with earth fcnr 
some yards, as they told me, which notwithstanding 
are upon a level with the fields that lie about them, 
though it is probable they took the advantage of a 



FERRARA, RAVENNA, RIMINI: 57 

rising ground to set it upon. It was a square tower 
of about twelve yards in breadth, as appears by that 
part of it which yet remains entire, so that its height 
must have been very considerable to have preserved 
a proportion. It is made in the form of the Ve- 
netian Campanello, and is probably the high tower 
mentioned by Pliny, lib. xxxvi. cap. 12. 

On the side of the town, where the sea is sup- 
posed to have lain formerly, there is now a little 
church called the Rotonda. At the entrance of it 
are two stones, the one with an inscription in Grothic 
characters, that has nothing in it remarkable ; the 
other is a square piece of marble, that by the inscrip- 
tion appears ancient, and by the ornaments about it 
shows itself to have been a little Pagan monument 
of two persons who were shipwrecked, perhaps in 
the place where now their monument stands. The 
first line and a half, that tells their names and fami- 
lies in prose, is not legible ; the rest runs thus : 



•RanuR domu$ hos produxit alumnos. 



IM>ertatis opus contulit una dies, 
Naufraga mors pariter rapuit quosjunxerat ant^t 
Et duplUes luctus mors periniqua dedit. 

Both with the same indulgent master bless'd. 

On the same day their liberty possess'd : 

A shipwreck slew whom it had ioin'd before. 

And left their common friends their fun'rals to deplore. 

There is a turn in the third verse that we lose by 
not knowing the circumstances of their story. It 
-was the natijfraga mors which destroyed them, as it 
had formerly united them ; what this union was is 
expressed in the preceding verse, by their both 
Laving been made freemen on the same day. If, 
therefore, we suppose they had been formerly ship- 
wrecked with their master, and that he made them 



58 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

free at the same time, the epigram is unriddled. 
Nor is this interpretation perhaps so forced as it 
may seem at first sight, since it was the custom of 
the masters, a little before their death, to give their 
slaves their freedom, if they had deserved it at their 
hands ; and it is natural enough to suppose one, in- 
volved in a common shipwreck, would give such of 
his slaves their liberty, as should have the good luck 
to save themselves. The chancel of this church is 
vaulted with a single stone of four foot in thickness, 
and a hundred and fourteen in circumference. There 
stood on the outside of this little cupola a great tomb 
of porphyry, and the statues of the twelve apostles ; 
but in the war that Lewis the twelfth made on Italy, 
the tomb was broken in pieces by a cannon-ball. It 
was perhaps the same blow that made the flaw in 
the cupola, though the inhabitants say it was cracked 
by thunder that destroyed a son of one of their 
Gothic princes, who had taken shelter under it, as 
having been foretold what kind of death he was to 
die. I asked an abbot that was in the church, what 
was the name of this Gothic prince, who, after a little 
recollection, answered me, " That he could not tell 
precisely, but that he thought it was one Julius 
Caesar." There is a convent of Theatins, where they 
show a little window in the church, through whicn 
the Holy Ghost is said to have entered in the shape 
of a dove, and to have settled on one of the candi- 
dates for the bishopric. The dove is represented in 
the window, and in several places of the church, and 
is in great reputation all over Italy. I should not, 
indeed, think it impossible for a pigeon to fly in ac- 
cidentally through the roof, where they still keep 
the hole open, and, by its fluttering over such a par- 
ticular place, to give so superstitious an assembly an 



FERRARA, RAVENNA, RIMINI. 59 

occasion of favouring a competitor^ especially if he 
had many friends among the electors that would 
make a politic use of such an accident; but they 
pretend the miracle has happened more than once. 
Among the pictures of seveiul famous men of their 
order, there is one with this inscription: P. D. 
Thomas Gouldvellus Ep, As. Trid, concilio contra 
Hcereticos, et in Anglia contra Elisabet. Fidei 
Confessor conspicuus. The statue of Alexander the 
seventh stands in the large square of the town ; it is 
cast in brass, and has the posture that is always 
given the figure of a pope ; an arm extended, and 
blessing the people. In another sauare on a high 
pillar is set the statue of the blessed virgin, arrayed 
like a queen, with a sceptre in her hand, and a 
crown upon her head ; for having delivered the town 
from a raging pestilence. The custom of crowning 
the holy virgin is so much in vogue among the 
Italians, that one often sees in their churches a little 
tinsel crown, or perhaps a circle of stars glued to the 
canvass over the head of the figure, which sometimes 
spoils a good picture. In the convent of Benedic- 
tmes I saw three huge chests of marble, with no 
inscription on them that I could find, though they 
are said to cmitain the ashes of Valentinian, Hono- 
rius, and his sister Placidia. From Ravenna I came 
to Rimini, having passed the Rubicon by the way. 
This river is not so very contemptible as it is gene-^ 
rally represented, and was much increased by the 
melting of the snows when Csesar passed it, accord- 
ing to Lucan : 

Fonte cadit modico, parvisqtie impellitur undis 
Puniceus RvMcon, cumfervida conduit (EStas : 
Perque imas serpit valUs, et Gallica certus 
Limes ab Ausoniis disterminat arva calonis : 



i 



REMARKS ON ITALY. 
Tune tint frxbtbat liyemt, aU/tu m 

tti^atitui Alpet, 



Tenia jam gravido pluviaiii Cynthia 
- uliituEaTiTt • -— — ■•- 



WbiU minnner luU, th« itreams of Ru 
Tram Ibeir ipenl ■ourcti.in ■ EmiB eoin 
Hid IB Ibe winding vtlea th^ gentlj g) 
And lUly from neighb'ring GauldiTidf 



indft disaolv'd Vwty. 

This river ie now called Pisatello. 

Rimini has nothing modern to boast of. Its anti- 
quities are as follow : a marble bridge of fire arches, 
built by Augustus and Tiberius, for the inscription 
is still legilue, though not rightly transcrilKia by 
Oruter. A triumphal arch raiud by Augustus, 
which makes a noble gate to the town, though part 
of it is ruined. The ruins of an amphitheatre. 
The sug^estum, on whidi it is e«id that Julius 
Ctesar harangued his army after having passed the 
Rubicon. I must confess I can by no means look 
on this last as authentic : it is built of hewn stone, 
like the pedestal of a pillar, but something higher 
^an ordinary, and is but just bnwd enough for one 
man to stand upon it. On the contrary, the ancient 
suggestums, as I have often observed on medals, as 
well as on Constantine's arch, were made of wood 
like a little kind of stage, for the heads of the nails 
are sometimes represented, that are supposed to have 
fastened the brards together. We often see on 
them the emperor, and two or three general o£Bcers, 
sometimes sitting, and sometimes standing, as they 
made speeches, or distributed a congiary to the sol- 
diers or people. They were probably always in 



FERRARA, RAVENNA, RIMINI. 61 

readiness^ and carried among the baggi^ of the 
army^ whereas this at Rimini must have been built 
' on the place^ and required some time before it could 
be finished. 

If the observation I have here made is just> it 
may serve as a confirmation to the learned Fabretti's 
conjecture on Trajan s pillar ; who supposes^ I think 
with a great deal of reason, that the camps^ in- 
trenchments, and other works of the same nature, 
which are cut out as if they had been made of brick 
or hewn stone, were in reality only of earth, turf, or 
the like materials ; for there are on the pillar some 
of these suggestums which are figured like those on 
medals, with only this difference, that they seem 
built of brick or freestone. At twelve miles' dis- 
tance from Rimini stands the little republic of St. 
Marino, which I could not forbear visiting, though 
it lies out of the common tour of travellers, and has 
excessively bad ways to it. I shall here give a par- 
ticular account of it, because I know*of nobody else 
that has done it. One may, at least, have the plea- 
sure of seeing in it something more singular than can 
be found in great governments, and form from it an 
idea of Venice in its first beginnings, when it had 
only a few heaps of earth for its dominions; or of 
Rome itself, when it had as yet covered but one of 
its seven hills. 

THE REPUBLIC OF ST. MARINO. 

The town and republic of St. Marino stands on the 
top of a very high and craggy mountain. It is 
generally hid among the clouds, and lay under snow 
when I saw it, though it was clear and warm 
weather in all the country about it. There is not a 

VOL. IV. G 



64 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

one of the Malatestas, who was then lord of Rimini ; 
and when they had helped to conquer him^ received 
from the pope^ as a reward for their assistance^ four 
little castles. This they represent as the flourishing 
time of the commonwealth, when their dominions 
reached half-way up a neighbouring hill; but at 
present they are reduced to their old extent. They 
would probably sell their liberty as dear as they 
could to any that attacked them ; for there is but 
one road by which to climb up to them, and they 
have a very severe law against any of their own body 
that enters the town by another path, lest any new 
one should be worn on the sides of their mountain. 
All that are capable of bearing arms are exercised^ 
and ready at a moment's call. 

The sovereign power of the republic was lodged 
originally in what they call the Arengo, a great 
council, in which every house had its representative. 
But because they found too much confusion in such 
a multitude of statesmen, they devolved their whole 
authority into the hands of the council of sixty. 
The Arengo, however, is still called together in 
cases of extraordinary importance ; and if, after due 
summons, any member absents himself, he is to be 
fined to the value of about a penny English, which 
the statute says he shall pay sine aliqud diminutione 
aut gratid. In the ordinary course of government 
the council of sixty (which, notwithstanding the 
name^ consists but of forty persons) has in its hands 
the administration of aifairs, and is made up half 
out of the noble families, and half out of the plebeian. 
They decide all by balloting, are not admitted till 
five and twenty years old, and choose the officers of 
the commonwealth. 

Thus far they agree with the great council of 



THE REPUBLIC OF ST. MARINO. 65 

Venice, but their power is much more extended; 
for no sentence can stand that is not confirmed by 
two-thirds of this council. Besides that, no son can 
be admitted into it during the life of his father, nor 
two be in it of the same family, nor any enter but. 
by election. The chief officers of the commonwealth 
are the two capitaneos, who have such a power as 
the old Roman consuls had, but are chosen every six 
months. I talked with some that had been capita- 
neos six or seven times, though the office is never to 
be continued to the same persons twice successively. 
The third officer is the commissary, who judges in 
all civil and criminal matters. But because the 
many alliances, friendships, and intermarriages, as 
well as the personal feuds and animosities, that 
happen among so small a people might obstruct the 
course of justice, if one of their own number had the 
distribution of it, they have always a foreigner for 
this employ, whom they choose for three years, and 
maintain out of the public stock. He must be a 
doctor of law, and a man of kno\!iai integrity. He 
is joined in commission with the capitaneos, and acts 
something like the recorder of London under the 
lord mayor. The commonwealth of Genoa was 
forced to make use of a foreign judge for many 
years, whilst their republic was torn into the divir 
sions of Guelphs and Gibelines. The fourth man in 
the state is the physician, who must likewise be a 
stranger, and is maintained by a public salary. He 
is obliged to keep a horse, to visit the sick, and to 
inspect all drugs that are imported. He must be at 
least thirty-five years old, a doctor of the faculty, 
and eminent for his religion and honesty, that his 
rashness or ignorance may not unpeople the com- 
monwealth. And, that they may not suffer long 

g3 



66 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

under any bad choice^ he is elected only for tliree 
years. 1 he present physician is a very understand- 
ing man, and well read in our countrymen, Harvey^ 
WiUis> Sydenham, etc. He has been continued for 
some time among them, and they say the common- 
wealth thrives under his hands. Another person 
who makes no ordinary figure in the republic, is the 
schoolmaster. I scarce met with any in the place 
that had not some tincture of learning. I had the 
perusal of a Latin book in folio, entitled, Statuta 
IllustrisnmcB reipubliccs Sancti Marini, printed at 
Bimini by order of the commonwealth. The chap- 
ter on the public ministers says, that when an am- 
bassador is despatched from the republic to any 
foreign state he shall be allowed, out of the treasury, 
to the value of a shilling a day. The people are 
esteemed very honest and rigorous in the execution 
of justice, and seem to live more happy and con- 
tented among their rocks and snows, than others of 
the Italians do in the pleasantest valleys of the 
world. Nothing, indeed, can be a greater instance 
of the natural love that mankind has for liberty, and 
of their aversion to an arbitrary government, than 
such a savage mountain covered with people, and the 
Campania of Rome, which lies in the same country, 
almost destitute of inhabitants. 

PESARO, FANO, SENTGALLIA, ANCONA, 
LORETTO, ETC. TO ROME. 

From Rimini to Loretto the towns of note are 
Pesaro, Fano, Senigallia, and Ancona. Fano re- 
ceived its name from the Fane, or temple of Fortune, 
that stood in it. One may still see the triumphal 
arch erected there to Augustus : it is indeed very 



PESARO, FANO, etc. TO ROME. 67 

mncli defaced by time ; but the plan of it, as it 
stood entire with all its inscriptions, is neatly cat 
upon the wall of a neighbouring building. In each 
of these towns is a beautiful marble fountain, where 
the water runs continually through several little 
spouts, which looks very refreshing in these hot 
countries, and gives a great coolness to the air about 
them. That of Pesaro is handsomely designed. 
Ancona is much the most considerable of these 
towns. It stands on a promontory, and looks more 
beautiful at a distance than when you are in it. 
The port was made by Trajan, for which he has a 
triumphal arch erected to him by the seaside. The 
marble of this arch looks very white and fresh, as 
being exposed to the winds and salt sea vapours, that 
by continually fretting it preserves itself from that 
mouldy colour, which others of the same materials 
have contracted. Though the Italians and voyage 
writers call these of Rimini, Fano, and Ancona, 
triumphal arches, there was probably some distinc- 
tion made among the Romans between such honorary 
arches erected to emperors, and those that were 
raised to them on the account of victory, which are 
properly triumphal arches. This at Ancona was an 
instance of gratitude to Trajan for the port he had 
made there, as the two others I have mentioned 
were probably for some reason of the same nature. 
One may, however, observe the wisdom of the an- 
cient Romans, who, to encourage their emperors in 
their inclination of doing good to their country, gave 
the same honours to the great actions of peace, 
which turned to the advantage of the public, as to 
those of war. This is very remarkable in the 
medals that are stamped on the same occasions. I 
remember to have seen one of Galba's with a 



68 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

triumphal arch on the reverse^ that was made hy the 
senates order for his having remitted a tax. r. 
xxxx^^REHissA. 8. c. The medal which was made 
for Trajan in remembrance of his beneficence to An- 
cona is very common. The reverse has on it a port 
with a chain running across it^ and betwixt them 
both a boat with this inscription : 

8. p. Q. R. OPTIMO PRINCIPI. 8. C. 

I know Fabretti would fain ascribe this medal to 
another occasion^ but Bellorio^ in his additions to 
Angeloni^ has suiEBciently refuted all he says on that 
subject. 

At Loretto I inquired for the English Jesuists' 
lodgings, and on the staircase that leads to them^ I 
saw several pictures of such as had been executed in 
England^ as the two Gramets, Oldcom, and others^ to 
the number of thirty. Whatever were their crimes, 
the inscription says they suffered for their religion^ 
and some of them are represented lying under such 
tortures as are not in use among us. The martyrs 
of 1679 are set by themselves, with a knife stuck in 
the bosom of each figure^ to signify that they were 
quartered. 

The riches in the Holy House and treasury are 
surprisingly great, and as much surpassed my ex- 
pectation as other sights have generally fallen short 
of it. Silver can scarce find an admission, and gold 
itself looks but poorly among such an incredible 
number of precious stones. There mil be, in a few 
ages more, the jewels of the greatest value in Eu- 
rope, if the devotion of its princes continues in its 
present fervour. The last offering was made by the 
queen dowager of Poland^ and cost her eighteen 
thousand crowns. Some have wondered that the 



PESARO, FANO, etc. TO ROME. 69 

Turk never attacks this treasury, since it lies so near 
the seashore, and is so weakly guarded. But besides 
that he has attempted it formerly with no success, it 
is certain the Venetians keep too watchful an eye 
over his motions at present, and would never suffer 
him to enter the Adriatic. It would, indeed, be an 
easy thing for a Christian prince to surprise it, who 
has ships still passing to and fro without suspicion, 
especially if he had a party in the town, disguised like 
pilgrims, to secure a gate for him ; for there have 
been sometimes to the number of one hundred thou- 
sand in a day 8 time, as it is generally reported. 
But it is probable the veneration for the Holy House, 
and the horror of an action that would be resented 
by all the catholic princes of £urope, will be as great 
a security to the place as the strongest fortification. 
It is indeed an amazing thing to see such a prodi- 
gious quantity of riches lie dead and untouched in 
the midst of so much poverty and misery as reign 
on all sides of them. There is no question, how- 
ever, but the pope would make use of these trea- 
sures in case of any great calamity that should 
endanger the holy see ; as an unfortunate war with 
the Turk, or a powerful league among the pro- 
testants. For I cannot but lo(3c on those vast heaps 
of wealth that are amassed together in so many reli- 
gious places of Italy, as the hidden reserves and 
magazines of the church, that she would open on any 
pressing occasion for her last defence and preserva- 
tion. If these riches were all turned into current 
coin, and employed in commerce, they would make 
Italy the most flourishing country in Europe. The 
case of the Holy House is nobly designed, and exe- 
cuted by the great masters of Italy, that flourished 
about an hundred years ago. The statues of the 



f REMARKS ON ITALY. 

sibyls are very finely wrought^ each of them in a 
different air and posture, as are likewise those of the 
prophets underneath them. The roof of the treasury 
IS painted with the same kind of device. There 
stands at the upper end of it a large crucifix, very 
much esteemed ; the figure of our Saviour represents 
him in his last agonies of death, and amidst all the 
ghastliness of the visage, has something in it very 
amiable. The gates of the church are said to be of 
Corinthian brass, with many scripture stories rising 
on them in basso relievo. The pope*s statue, and 
the fountain by it, would make a noble show in a 
place less beautified with so many other productions 
of art. The spicery, the cellar and its furniture, 
the great revenues of the convent, with the story of 
the Holy House, are too well known to be here in- 
sisted upon. 

Whoever were the first inventors of this impos- 
ture, they seem to have taken the hint of it from 
the veneration that the old Romans paid to the 
cottage of Romulus, which stood on mount Capitol, 
and was repaired from time to time as it fell to 
decay. Virgil has given a pretty image of this little 
thatched palace, that represents it standing in Man- 
lius's time, three hundred and twenty years after 
the death of Romulus : 

In tummo custos Tarpeue Manlius arch 
Stabat pro templOf et capitolia celsa tenebat ; 
RomuUoque recens horrebat regia eulfno, i£N. lib. 8. 

High on a rock heroic Manlius stood 
To guard the temple and the temple's god : 
Then Rome was poor, and there you might behold 
The palace thatch'df with straw. Dry den. 

From Loretto, in my way to Rome, I passed 
through Recanati, Macerata, Tolentino^ and Foligni. 



PESARO, FANO, etc. TO ROME. n 

In the last there is a convent of nuns called la Con- 
te8sa> that has in the church an incomparable Ma- 
donna of Eaphael. At Spoletto^ the next town on 
the road^ are some antiquities. The most remark- 
able is an aqueduct of a Gothic structure^ that con- 
veys the water from mount St. Francis to Spoletto^ 
which is not to be equalled for its height by any 
other in £urope. They reckon from the foundation 
of the lowest arch to the top of it two hundred and 
thirty yards. In my way hence to Temi I saw the 
river C]itumnus> celebrated by so many of the poets 
for a particular quality in its waters^ of making cattle 
white that drink of it. The inhabitants of that 
country have still the same opinion of it^ as I found 
upon inquiry^ and have a great many oxen of a 
whitish colour to confirm them in it. It is probable 
this breed was first settled in the country^ and con- 
tinuing still the same species^ has made the inha- 
bitants impute it to a wrong cause; though they 
may as well fancy their hogs turn black for some 
reason of the same nature^ because there are none in 
Italy of any other breed. The river Clitumnus^ 
and Mevania that stood on the banks of it^ are 
famous for the herds of victims with which they fur- 
nished all Italy : 

Quaformosa $uo Clitumnus Jlumina luco 

hitegit, et niveos abluit unda boves. Prop. lib. 2. 

Hinc albi, Clitnmne, greges, et maxima taurus 
Victima, sape tuo perjusijiumine tacro, 
Romanes ad templa l)eum duxere triumphoi, 

A' IRQ, Georg. 2. 

There flows Clitumnus through the flow'ry plain ; 
A\ hose waves, for triumphs adfter prosperous war. 
The victim ox, and snowy sheep prepare 



T2 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

Patulis ClitumniLS in arvis 
Candentes gelido yrcfundit Jiumine tauros, 

SiL. Ital. lib. 2. 



■Tauriferis vihi te Mevania campis 



Explicat Luc. lib* 1 • 

. Atque ubi latis 

Prqjecta in campis nebuUis exhalat inertes, 

Et sedet ingentem pascens Mevania taurum. 

Dona Jovi Id, lib. 6- 



■Nec si vaxmet Mevania valles. 



Aut prastent niveos Clitumna novalia tauros, 

Sufficiam Stat. Syl. lib. 1. 

Pinguior Hispulld traheretur tauruSf et ipsd, 

MoU piger, necjinitimd nutritus in herbd, 

Lata sed ostendens Clitumni pascua sanguis 

Iret, et a grandi cervix ferienda ministro. Juv. Sat. 12. 

A bull high fed should fall the sacrifice. 
One of Hispulla*8 huge prodigious size : 
Not one of those our neighboring pastures feed. 
But of Clitumnus* whitest sacred breed : 
The lively tincture of whose gushing blood 
Should clearly prove the richness of his food ; 
A neck so strong, so large, as would command 
The speeding blow of some uncommon band. 

Mr. Congreve. 

I shall afterwards have occasion to quote Clau- 
dian. 

Temi is the next town in course^ formerly called 
Interamna^ for the. same reason that a part of Asia 
was named Mesopotamia. We enter at the gate 
of the three monuments^ so called because there 
stood near it a monument erected to Tacitus the 
historian^ with two others to the emperors Tacitus 
and Florianus^ all of them natives of the place. 
These were a few years ago demolished by thunder^ 
and the fragments of them are in the hands of some 



PESARO, FANO, etc. TO ROME. 73 

gentlemen of the town. Near the dome I was 
shown a square marble> inserted in the wall^ with 
the following inscription : 

Saluti perpetuit Augusts 
Libertatique Publico Populi Romani 

Genio municipi Anno pott 

Jnteramnam Conditam, 
D. CC. IV. 

Ad Cnefum Domitium Ahenobarbum, ^^ Om, 

providentiit Ti. Casaris Augusti nati ad ^temitatem Romam 
nominit sublato ho$te pemiciosissimo P. R, Fauttus Titiut Liberalit 
VI. vtr tterum. P. S. F. C. that is, pecunia tua fieri curavvt* 

This stone was probably set up on occasion of the 
fall of Sejanus. After the name of Ahenobarbus 
there is a little furrow in the marble^ but so smooth 
and well polished^ that I should not have taken 
notice of it had not I seen coss, at the end of it^ by 
which it is plain there was once the name of another 
consul^ which has been industriously razed out. 
Lucius Aruncius Camillus Scribonianus was consul 
under the reign of Tiberius, and was afterwards put 
to death for a conspiracy that he had formed agamst 
the emperor Claudius ; at which time it was ordered 
that his name and consulate should be effaced out of 
all public registers and inscriptions. It is not there- 
fore improbable, that it was this long name which 
filled up the gap I am now mentioning. There are 
near thiis monument the ruins of an ancient theatre, 
with some of the caves entire. I saw among the 
ruins an old heathen altar, with this particularity in 
it, that it is hollowed like a dish at one end ; but it 
was not this end on which the sacrifice was laid, as 
one may suess from the make of the festoon that 
runs round the altar, and is inverted when the hol- 
low stands uppermost. In the same yard, among 

VOL. IV. H 



74 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

the rubbish of the theatre, lie two pillars, the one of 
granate, and the other of a very beautiful marble. I 
went out of my way to see the famous cascade about 
three miles from Terni. It is formed by the fall of 
the river Velino, which Virgil mentions in the 
seventh ^neid. — Rosea rura Vellni, 

The channel of this river lies very high, and is 
shaded on all sides by a green forest, made up of 
several kinds of trees, that preserve their verdure all 
the year. The neighbouring mountains are covered 
with them, and, by reason of their height, are more 
exposed to the dews and drizzling rains than any of 
the adjacent parts, which gives occasion to Virgil's 
rosea rura, dewy countries. The river runs ex- 
tremely rapid before its fall, and rushes down a 
precipice of a hundred yards high. It throws itself 
into the hollow of a rock, which has probably been 
worn by such a constant fall of water. It is impos- 
sible to see the bottom on which it breaks for the - 
thickness of the mist that rises from it, which looks 
at a distance like clouds of smoke ascending from 
some vast furnace, and distils in perpetual rains on 
all the places that lie near it. I think there is 
something more astonishing in this cascade than in 
all the water-works of Versailles, and could not but 
wonder when I first saw it, that I had never met 
with it in any of the old poets, especially in Clau- 
dian, who makes his emperor Honorius go out of his 
tmy to see the river Nar, which runs just below it, 
and yet does not mention what would have been so 

feat an embellishment to his poem. But at present 
do not in the least question, notwithstanding the 
opinion of some learned men to the contrary, that 
this is the gulf through which Virgil's Alecto shoots 
herself into hell : for the very place, the great repu- 



PESARO, FANO, etc. TO ROME. 75 

tation of it^ the fall of waters> the woods that enoom* 
pass it^ with the smoke and noise that arise horn it^ 
are all pointed at in the description. Perhaps he 
would not mention the name of the river because he 
has done it in the verses that precede. We may 
add to thisj that the cascade is not far off that part 
of Italy which has been called Italice MedituUium, 

Est lociis Italia medio sti6 montUmt altis 
NobiliSf etfamd multis memoratus in oris, 
Amsancti valles, densis kuncfrondihiu atrum 
Urget utrinqtie latus nemoriSf medioque fragosus 
Dat sonitum saxis et torto vortice torrens : 
Hie speciis horrendumf scevi spiracuUt Ditis 
Monstratur, ruptoqv£ ingens Acheronte voretgo 
Pestiferas aperit fauces, quis condita Erinnys, 
Invisum numen, terras calumque levabat, iEn. 7. 

In midst of Italy, well known to fame, 
There lies a vale, Amsanctus is the name, 
Below the lofty mounts : on either side 
Thick forests tiie forbidden entrance hide : 
Full in the centre of the sacred wood 
An arm ariseth of the Stygian flood ; 
Which falling from on high, with bellowing sound 
Whirls the black waves and rattling stones around. 
Here Fluto pants for breath from out his cell. 
And opens wide the grinning jaws of hell. 
To this infernal gate the fury flies. 
Here hides her hated head, and frees the lab'ring skies. 

Dbyden. 

It was indeed the most proper place in the world 
for a fury to make her exit^ after she had filled a 
nation with distractions and alarms ; and I believe 
every reader's imagination is pleased when he sees 
the angry goddess thus sinkings as it were^ in a tem- 
pest^ ana plunging herself into hell^ amidst such a 
scene of horror and confusion. 



76 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

The river Velino^ after having found its way out 
from among the rocks where it falls^ runs into the 
Nera. The channel of this last river is white with 
rocks> and the surface of it, for a long space^ covered 
with froth and bubbles ; for it runs all along upon 
the fret, and is still breaking against the stones that 
oppose its passage ; so that for these reasons, as well 
as for the mixture of sulphur in its waters, it is very 
well described bv Virgil, in that verse which men- 
tions these two rivers in their old Roman names : 

Tartaream intendit vocem ; quA protinus omne 
Cantremuit nemiu, et sylvte intonuere profunda, 
Audiit €t Umge TrivuR lacut, audiit amnis 
Sulfured Nar aUms aqud,fontetque Velini, ^n. 7. 

The sacred lake of Trivia from afar. 

The Veline fountains, and sulphureous Nar, 

Shake at the baleful blast, the signal of the war. 

Drtden. 

He makes the sound of the fury's trumpet run up 
the Nera to the very sources of Velino, which a^ees 
extremely well with the situation of these nvers. 
When Virgil has marked any particular quality in 
a river^ the other poets seldom fail of copying after 
him. 

_. Sulphureut Nar, Auson. 



Narque albescentUms undU 



In Tibrim properatu. Sil. It. lib. 8. 

Et Nar vitiatui odoro 

Sulfure. — — — 



Claud, de Pr. et Olyb. Cons. 

The hoaiY Nar, 

Corrupted with {he stench of sulphur, flows. 

And into Tiber's streams th' infected current throws. 

From this river our next town on the road receives 
the name of Narni. I saw hereabouts nothing 



PESARO, FANO, etc. TO ROME. n 

remarkable except Augustus's bridge, that stands 
half a mile from the town, and is one of the state- 
liest ruins in Italy. It has no cement, and looks as 
firm as one entire stone. There is an arch of it un- 
broken, the broadest that I have ever seen, though, 
by reason of its great height, it does not appear so. 
The middle one was still much broader. They join 
t<^ther two mountains, and belonged, without 
doubt, to the bridge that Martial mentions, though 
Mr. Ray takes them to be the remains of an aque- 
duct. 

Sedjam parce mihi, nee abutere, Namia, quinto; 
Perpetva liceat sic tibi pontefrui ! Lib. vii. ep« 93. 

Preserve my better part, and spare my friend ; 
So, Nami, may thy bridge for ever stand. 

From Nami I went to Otricoli, a very mean little 
village, that stands where the castle of Ocriculum 
did formerly. I turned about half a mile out of the 
road to see the ruins of the old Ocriculum, that lie 
near the banks of the Tiber. There are still scat- 
tered pillars and pedestals, huge pieces of marble 
half buried in the earth, fragments of towers, sub- 
terraneous vaults, bathing-places, and the like marks 
of its ancient magnificence. • 

In my way to Rome, seeing a high hill standing 
by itself in the Campania, I did not question but it 
had a classic name, and upon inquiry found it to be 
mount Soracte. The Italians at present call it, 
because its name begins with an S, St. Oreste. 

The fatigue of our crossing the Apennines, and of 
our whole journey from Loretto to Rome, was very 
agreeably relieved by the variety of scenes we passed 
through. For not to mention the rude prospect of 
rocks rising one above another, of the gutters deep 

h3 



78 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

worn in the sides of tbem by torrents of rain and 
snow-water, or the long channels of sand winding 
about their bottoms, that are sometimes filled with 
so many rivers : we saw^ in six days' travellinff^ the 
several seasons of the year in their beauty and per- 
fection. We were sometimes shivering on the top 
of a bleak mountain^ and a little while after baskine 
in a warm valley^ covered with violets and almond 
trees in blossom^ the bees already swarming over 
them, though but in the month of February. Some- 
times our road led us through groves of ohves, or by 
gardens of oranges, or into several hollow apartments 
among the rocks and mountains, that look like so 
many natural greenhouses ; as being always shaded 
with a great variety of trees and shrubs that never 
lose their verdure. 

I shall say nothing of the Via Flaminia, which 
has been spoken of by most of the voyage writers 
that have passed it ; but shall set down Claudian's 
account of the journey that Honorius made from 
Ravenna to Rome, which lies most of it in the same 
road that I have been describing: 



Antiqua murot egretsa Ravenn^B 



Signa mow * Jamque ora Padi, portusque relinquit 
Flumineos, certis ubi UgUmt advena Nereus 
Alstuat, et pronat puppet nunc amne secundo, 
Nunc redeunte, vehit, nudataqv^ littorajluctu 
Deserit, oceani lunaribus emula dumnis. 
Latior hincfano recipit Fortuna vetusto, 
Despiciturque vagus praruptd vaUe Metaurut, 
Qua mens arte patens vivo se perforat arcu, 
Admittitque viam secta per viscera rupis, 
Exsuperans delubra Jovis, saxoque minantes 
Apenninigenis cultas pastoribus aras : 
Quin et Clitumni sacras victoriims undas, 
Candida quie latiis prabent armenta triumphis 
Visere curafuit» Nee te miraculafontis 



PESARO, FANO, etc. TO ROME. 79 

Pratereunt, tacito pastu quern si quu adireti 

Lentus erat : si voce gradum majore citdsset, 

Commotisfervebat aquis : cumque omnibiu una 

Sit natura vadis, similes ut corjwris umbrai 

Ostendant : hec sola novam jactantia sffrtem 

Humanos properant imitari Jiumina mores, 

Celsa dehinc patulum prospectans Namia campum 

Regali calcatur equo, rarique coloris 

Non pTocul amnis abest, urbi qui nominis auctor, 

Ilice 5u6 densd sylvis arctatus opacU 

Inter utrumquejugum tortis anfractibus albet, 

Inde, salutato libatis Tibride lymphis, 
JExcipiunt arcus, operosaque semita vastis 
MolibuSf et quicquid tanttB jytamittitur urbi. 

De Sext. Cons. Hon. 

They leave Ravenna and the mouths of Po, 
That all the borders of the town o'erflow ; 
And spreading round in one continued lake, 
A spacious hospitable harbour make. 
Hither the seas at stated times resort. 
And shove the laden vessels into port : 
Then with a gentle ebb retire again. 
And render back their cargo to the main. 
So the pale moon the restless ocean guides, 
Driv'n to and fro by such submissive tides. 
Fair Fortune next, with looks serene and kind. 
Receives them, in her ancient fane enshrin'd ; 
Then the high hills they cross, and from below 
In distant murmurs hear Metaurus flow ; 
Till to CIitumno*s sacred streams they come, 
That send white victims to almighty Rome -, 
When her triumphant sons in war succeed, 
And slaughtered hecatombs around them bleed. 
At Narni's lofty seats, arriv'd from far, 
They view the windings of the hoary Nar ; 
Through rocks and woods impetuously he glides, 
While froth, and foam, the fretting surface hides. 
And now the royal guest, all dangers past. 
Old Tiber and his nymphs salutes at last ; 
The long laborious pavement here he treads, 
That to proud Rome th' admiriag nations leads : 



80 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

While stately yaults and tow'ring piles appear, 
And show the world's metropolis is near. 

Silius Italicus^ who has taken more pains on the 
geography of Italy than any other of the Latin poets^ 
has given a catalogue of most of the rivers that I 
saw in Umbria^ or in the borders of it. He has 
avoided a fault (if it be really such) which Macro- 
bius has objected to Virgil, of passing from one 
place to another without regarding their regular and 
natural situation, in which Homer's catalogues are 
observed to be much more methodical and exact 
than Virgil's. 



Cavis venientes tnontibtu, Utnbri, 



Hos ^m Sapisque lavant, rapidatque soruLnti 
Vortice cont<rrquem undcu per 4axa Metaurus, 
Et lavat ingentem perfundensflumine iocro 
Clitumntu taurwtit Narque albescentibus undU 
In Tt6ftm properans, Tini4tque inglorius humor , 
Et CUmis, et RubicOf et Senonum de nomine Sena* 
Sed pater ingenti medios illabitur amne 
AUmla, et admotd perstringit moenia ripd, 
His urbes Ama, et littis mevania pratis, 
Hispellum, et duro monti per saxa recun^ns 
Namia, etc, ■ 

SiL. Ital. lib. 8. 

Since I am got among the poets, I shall end this 
chapter with two or three passages out of them, that 
I have omitted inserting in their proper places. 

Sit cistema mihi, quam vinea, malo, Ravenna : 
Cum possim multo vendere pluris aquam. 

Martial, lib. 3. 

Lodg'd at Ravenna (water sells so dear), 
A cistern to a vineyaurd I prefer. 

Callidus imposuit nuper mihi copo Ravenna ; 
Cum peterem mixtum, vendidit UU merum. Idem. 



PESARO, FANO, etc. TO ROME. 81 

By a Ravenna vintner once betray'd, 
So much for wine and water mix d I paid ; 
But when I thought the purchased liquor mine. 
The rascal fobb'd me off with only wine. 

Statfucare colus nee Sidone vilior Aneon, 

Uurice nee Tyrio. 

SiL. Ital. lib. 8. 

The wool when shaded with Ancona's dye. 
May with the proudest Tyrian purple vie. 

Fountain water is still very scarce at Ravenna^ 
and was probably mach more so when the sea was 
within its neighbourhood. 

FROM ROME TO NAPLES. 

Upon my arrival at Rome, I took a view of St. 
Peter's, and the Rotunda, leaving the rest till my 
return from Naples, when I should have time and 
leisure enough to consider what I saw. St. Peter's 
seldom answers expectation at first entering it, but 
enlarges itself on all sides insensibly, and mends 
upon the eye every moment. The proportions are 
so very well observed, that nothing appears to an 
advantage, or distinguishes itself above tne rest. It 
seems neither extremely high, nor long, nor broad, 
because it is all of them in a just equality. As on 
the contrary, in our Gothic cathedrals, the narrow- 
ness of the arch makes it rise in height, or run out 
in length ; the lowness often opens it in breadth ; or 
the defectiveness of some other particular makes 
any single part appear in great perfection. Though 
everything in this church is admirable, the most 
astonishing part of it is the cupola. Upon my going 
to the top of it, I was surprised to find that the 



82 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

dome^ which we see in the ehurch^ is not the same 
that one looks upon without doors^ the last of them 
being a kind of case to the other^ and the stairs 
lying betwixt them both^ by which one ascends into 
the ball. Had there been only the outward dome, 
it would not have shown itself to an advantage to 
those that are in the church ; or had there only been 
the inward one, it would scarce have been seen by 
those that are without; had they both been one 
solid dome of so great a thickness, the pillars would 
have been too weak to have supported it. After 
having surveyed this dome, I went to see the Ro« 
tunda, which is generally said to have been the 
model of it. This church is at present so much 
changed from the ancient Pantheon, as Pliny has de- 
scribed it, that some have been inclined to think it 
is net the same temple ; but the Cavalier Fontana 
iias abundaatly satisfied the world in this particular, 
and shown how the ancient figure and ornaments of 
the Pantheon have been changed into what they 
are at present. This author, who is now esteemed 
the best of the Roman architects, has lately written 
a treatise on Vespasian's Amphitheatre, which is 
not yet printed. 

After having seen these two masterpieces of 
modem and ancient architecture, I have often consi- 
dered with myself whether the ordinary figure of the 
heathen or that of the Christian temples be the 
most beautiful, and the most capable of magni- 
ficence, and cannot forbear thinking the cross figure 
more proper for such spacious buildings than the 
rotund. I must confess the eye is better filled at 
first entering the rotund, and takes in the whole 
beauty and magnificence of the temple at one view. 
But such as are built in the form of a cross^ give us 



FROM ROME TO NAPLES. 83 

a greater variety of ndble prospects. Nor is it easy 
to conceive a more glorious show in architecture^ 
than what a man meets with in St. Peter's when he 
stands under the dome. If he looks upward he is 
astonished at the spacious hollow of the cupola^ and 
has a vault on every side of him^ that makes one of 
the beautifullest vistas that the eye can possibly pass 
through. I know that such as are professed admirers 
of the ancients^ will find abundance of chimerical 
beauties the architects themselves never thought of; 
as one of the most famous of the modems in that art 
tells MS, the hole in the roof of the rotunda is so 
admirablv contrived, that it makes those who are in 
the temple look like angels^ by diffusing the light 
equally on all sides of them. 

In all the old highways that lead ^m Rome^ one 
sees several little ruins on each side of them^ that 
were formerly so many sepulchres ; for the ancient 
Romans generally buned their dead near the great 
roads: 

Quorum Flaminid tegitur cinis atque Latind, Juv. Sat. 1. 

none^ but some few of a very extraordinary quality^ 
having been interred within the walls of the city. 

Our Christian epitaphs^ that are to be seen only 
in churches^ or churchyards^ begin often with a 
Siste Viator — Viator precare salutem, etc. probably 
in imitation of the old Roman inscriptions that gene- 
rally addressed themselves to the travellers; as it 
was impossible for them to enter the city^ or to go 
out of it^ without passing through one of these 
melancholy roads^ which for a great length was 
nothing else but a street of funeral monuments. 

In my way from Rome to Naples I found nothing 
so remarkable as the beauty of the country and the 



84 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

extreme poverty of its inhabitants. It is indeed an 
amazing thing to see the present desolation of Italy, 
when one considers what incredible multitudes of 
people it abounded with during the reigns of the 
Koman emperors ; and notwithstanding the removal 
of the imperial seat^ the irruptions of barbarous 
nations, the civil wars of this countrv> with the 
hardships of its several governments^ one can scarce 
imagine how so plentiful a soil should become so 
miserably unpeopled in comparison of what it once 
was. We may reckon, by a very moderate com- 
putation, more inhabitants in the Campania of old 
Home than are now in all Italy. And if we could 
number up those prodigious swarms that had settled 
themselves in every part of this delightful country, I 
question not but that they would amount to more 
tnan can be found at present, in any six parts of 
Europe of the same extent. This desolation appears 
nowhere greater than in the pope's territories, and 
yet there are several reasons would make a man ex- 
pect to see these dominions the best regulated and 
most flourishing of any other in Europe. Their 
prince is generally a man of learning and virtue, 
mature in years and experience, who has seldom any 
vanity or pleasure to gratify at his people'i| expense, 
and is neither encumbered with wife, children, or 
mistresses ; not to mention the supposed sanctity of 
his character, which obliges him in a more par- 
ticular manner to consult the good and happiness of 
mankind. The direction of church and state are 
lodged entirely in his o^vn hands, so that his govern- 
ment is naturally free from those principles of faction 
and division which are mixed in the very composition 
of most others. His subjects are always ready to 
fall in with his designs, and are more at his disposal 



FROM ROME TO NAPLES. 55 

t&an any others of the most absolute govertiment, as 
they have a greater veneration for his person^ and 
not only conrt his favour^ but his blessing. His 
country is extremely fruitful, and has good havens 
both for the Adriatic and Mediterranean, which is 
an advantage peculiar to himself and the Neapo- 
litans above the rest of the Italians. There is still a 
benefit the pope enjoys above all other sovereigns, in 
drawing great sums out of Spain, Germany, and 
other countries that belong to foreign princes, which 
one would fancy might be no small ease to his own 
subjects. We may here add, that there is no place 
in Europe so much frequented by strangers, whether 
they are such as come out of curiosity, or such who 
are obliged to attend the court of Rome on several 
occasions, as are many of the cardinals and prelates, 
that bring considerable sums into the pope's domi- 
nions. But notwithstanding all these promising dr- 
cumstances, and the long peace that has reigned so 
many years in Italy, there is not a more miserable 
people in Europe than the pope's subjects. His 
state is thin of inhabitants, and a great part of his 
soil uncultivated. His subjects are ^vretchedly poor 
and idle, and have neither sufficient manufactures 
nor traffic to employ them. These ill effects may 
arise, in a great measure, out of the arbitrariness of 
the government, but I think they are chiefly to be 
ascribed to the very genius of the Roman catholic 
religion, which here shows itself in its perfec- 
tion. It is not strange to find a country half un- 
peopled, where so great a proportion of the inha- 
bitants of both sexes is tied under such vows of 
chastity, and where at the same time an inquisition 
forbids all recruits out of any other religion. Nor is 
it less easy to account for the great poverty and 

VOL. IV. I 



se REMARKS ON ITALY. 

want that are to be met with in a country which 
invites into it such swarms of vagabonds^ under the 
title of pilgrims, and shuts up in cloisters such an 
incredible multitude of young and lusty beggars, 
who, instead of increasing the common stock by their 
labour and industry, lie as a dead weight on their 
fellow-subjects, and consume the charity that ought 
to support the sickly, old, and decrepit. The many 
hospitals that are everywhere erected, serve rather 
to encourage idleness in the people, than to set them 
at work ; not to mention the great riches which lie 
useless in churches and religious houses, with the 
multitude of festivals that must never be violated by 
trade or business. To speak tnily, they are here 
so wholly taken up with men's souls, that they 
neglect the good of their bodies ; and when, to these 
natural evils in the government and religion, there 
arises among them an avaricious pope, who is for 
making a family, it is no wonder if the people sink 
under such a complication of distempers. Yet it is 
to this humour of nepotism that Rome owes its pre- 
sent splendour and magnificence ; for it would have 
been impossible to have furnished out so many 
glorious palaces with such a profusion of pictures, 
statues, and the like ornaments, had not the riches 
of the people at several times fallen into the hands 
of many different families, and of particular persons: 
as we may observe, though the bulk of the Roman 
people was more rich and happy in the times of the 
commonwealth, the city of Rome received all its 
beauties and embellishments under the emperors. 
It is probable the Campania of Rome, as well as 
other parts of the pope's territories, would be culti* 
vated much better than it is, were there not such an 
exorbitant tax on corn, which makes them plough 



FROM ROME TO NAPLES. 87 

up only such spots of ground as turn to the most 
advantage: whereas^ were the money to be raised 
on lands^ with an exception to some of the more 
barren parts^ that might be tax-free for a certain 
term of years^ every one would turn his ground to 
the best account^ and in a little time, perhaps, bring 
more money into the pope's treasury. 

The greatest pleasure I took in my journey from 
Rome to Naples was in seeing the fields, towns, and 
rivers that have been described by so many classic 
authors, and have been the scenes of so many great 
actions ; for this whole road is extremely barren of 
curiosities. It is worth while to have an eye on 
Horace s voyage to Brundisi, when one passes this 
wav ; for by comparing his several staees, and the 
road he took, with those that are observed at present, 
we may have some idea of the changes that have 
been made in the face of this country since his time. 
If we may guess at the common travelling of persons 
of quality, among the ancient Romans, from this 
poet's description of his voyage, we may conclude 
they seldom went above fourteen miles a day over 
the Appian way, which was more used by the noble 
Romans than any other in Italy, as it led to Naples, 
Baise, and the most delightful parts of the nation. 
It is, indeed, very disagreeable to be carried in haste 
over this pavement. 

Minut eit gravis Appia tardis, Hor. 

Lucan has described the very road from Anxur to 
Rome that Horace took from Rome to Anxur. It 
is not, indeed, the ordinary way at present, nor is it 
marked out by the same places in both poets. 

Jamque et pnecipites $uperaverat Anxuris arees^ 
Et qua Pontinas via dividit uda paludeSf 



88 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

Qn^ tubUme nemus, Scythiae qua regna DiafU[ : 
Quaque iter est Latiis ad summamfatdbut Albam, 
ExceUd de rupe procnljam consfficit urbem. Lib. 3. 

He now had conquered Anxur's steep ascent. 
And to Pontina's wat'ry marshes went, 
A long canal the muddy fen divides. 
And with a clear unsullied current glides ; 
Diana's woody realms he next invades, 
And crossing through the consecrated shades 
Ascends high Alba, whence with new delight 
He sees the city rising to his sight. 

In my way to Naples I crossed the two most coa- 
aiderable rivers of the Campania Felice^ that were 
formerly called the Liris and Vulturnus^ and are at 
present the Garigliano and Vultumo. The first of 
these rivers has been as deservedly celebrated by the 
Latin poets for the gentleness of its course^ as the 
other for its rapidity and noise. 

Rura qws Lirit quietd 



Mordet aqua, tacitumus amnis, Hon. lib. i. Od. 31. 

Iatis — ^— — quifonte quieto 
DistimtUat cursum, ac nulla mutabilU imbri 
Perstringit tacitas gemmanti gurgite ripas, 

SiL. Ital. lib. 4. 



Miacentem Jlumina Lirim 



Sulfureum, tacititque veuiis ad littora lapium 

Accolit Arpinas. < Idem, lib. 8. 

Where the smooth streams of Liris stray. 

And steal insensibly away. 

The warlike Arpine borders on the sides 

Of the slow Liris, that in silence glides, 

And in its tainted stream the working sulphur hides. 

VultumusqtAe rapax, 

Cl. de Pr. et 01. Con. 

Vultumusque ceUr, • Luc. lib. ii. 28. 



FROM ROME TO NAPLES. 69 

Fluetuque sonorum 



Vuitumum, ■ Sil. Ital. lib. 8. 

The rough Vulturnus, furious in its course. 
With rapid streams divides the fruitful croands. 
And from afar in hollow murmurs sounds. 

The ruins of Anxur and old Capua mark out the 
pleaesant situation in which those towns formerly 
stood. The first of them was planted on the moun- 
tain^ where we now see Terracina ; and by reason of 
the breezes that came off the sea^ and the height of 
its situation^ was one of the summer retirements of 
the ancient Romans. 

nemu$f Ofontet ! solidumque nuidentis arerut 
Littus, et 4equoreu splendidus Anxur aquis ! 

Mar. lib. x. ep. 51. 

Ye warbling fountains, and ye shady trees. 
Where Anxur feels the cool refreshing breeze 
Blown off the sea, and all the dewy strand 
Lies coverM with a smooth unsinking sand ! 

Anxuris aquorei placidos, Frontine, recettut, 

Et fn'opius Baias, littoreamqtie d^tmum, 
Et quod inhumaruE cancrofervente deada 

Nan novere nemus, Jiumineotque lacus, 
Dum coluif etc, < 

Idem, lib. x. ep. 58. 

On the cool shore, near Baia's gentle seats, 

1 lay retir'd in Anxur's soft retreats. 

Where silver lakes, with verdant shadows crown'd. 
Disperse a grateful chillness all around ; 
The grasshopper avoids th' untainted air. 
Nor in the midst of summer ventures there. 

Impositum mxis late candentibus Anxur, 

HoR. Sat. 5. lib. i. 

Monte procellogo Murranum mitei'at Anxur, 

Sil. Ital. lib. 4. 



Seopulosi verticU Anxur, Idem, lib. 4. 

i3 



REMARKS ON ITALY. 

■CapuM Lumm vide apod ■ Idem, lib. 11. 



n hilli - 

I do not know whether it be worth while to take- 
notice that the figures, which are cut in the rock 
near Terracina, increase still la a decimal proportion 
•s they come nearer the bottom. If one of oar voy- 
age writers, who passed this way mare than once, 
had observed the situation of these figures, he would 
not have troubled himself with the dissertation that 
lie has made upon them. Silius Italicus Itas ^ven 
UB the names of several towns and rivers in the Cam- 
pania Felice. 

Jam i/trA, fuot ditui D)>uin, juoi divti aiigrvw 
E tato dabat ad biltum Cimpanta tntftu ; 
AtcJin-uiTi aditnlu Dicinii udibat Out 
Servabant; Simuuattpeni.jliictiujtit Knvyram 
VvdurRufn, fiuuguc metiert liJentia Amycla, 
JuTUfif Uff tt regnata Lamo CaJBta, domutqae 
Antiphatx compnuafnte, ttagnii^ae paiulErtf 
JjinCemum, et qtioadamfatorum contcia Cumf : 
Kite Nueerio, el Gaum navalUmi opEui: 
rWi« DitliarchrA mtiitc cum mitite Graja 
lilU Partltejuipe, tt Pieno hob pervia Nolo, 
AUifn et Clonio conttmta lemper Aeernt, 
SaiTaitii eliam pcjmfM, totasifut videra 
Sami mitii i/pet ; itiic, qwi lulphare pingati 
PhltgTKi Ugtre linut, MitenMi et ardtTii 
Ore gigunleo udei Ithaeesia, Baii, 
Non Prochitr, rum ardenttm u/rtita Tiphaa 
laarime, mm anttfid tanaa Tehnis 
Jntuta, nee parvit aberat Catatia muris, 
£nrrenFum, el pauper iviri Cn«aiii Abella, 
Jn primit CapvOt heu rebut ieroare urrU 
JncontuUa DHJdunij tt pravo peritum lumoret 

SiL. iTAL. lib. 8. 



NAPLES. 01 



CITY OF NAPLES. 



My first days at Naples were taken up with the 
sight of processions, which are always very magnifi« 
«ent in the holy week. It would be tedious to give 
an account of the several representations of our 
Saviour's death and resurrection, of the figures of 
himself^ the blessed virgin, and the apostles, which 
are carried up and down on this occasion^ with the 
cruel penances that several inflict on themselves^ 
and the multitude of ceremonies that attend these 
solemnities. I saw, at the same time, a very splen-* 
did procession for the accession of the duke of AnjoU 
to the crown of Spain, in which the viceroy bore his 
part at the left hand of cardinal Cantelmi. To grace 
the parade, they exposed, at the same time, the blood 
of St. Januarius, which liquified at the approach of 
the saint's head, though, as t)iey say, it was hard 
congealed before. I had twice an opportunity of 
seeing the operation of this pretended miracle, and 
must confess I think it so far from being a real 
miracle, that I look upon it as one of the most 
bungling tricks that I ever saw : yet it is this that 
makes as great a noise as any in the Roman church, 
and that monsieur Paschal has hinted at among the 
rest, in his marks of the true religion. The modem 
Neapolitans seem to have copied it out from one 
which was shown in a town of the kingdom of 
Naples, as long ago as in Horace's time : 

Dehinc Gnatia lymphis 



Iratis exstructa dedit risuiquejocosque, 
Dumfiammd sine, thura liqu£scere limine sacro 
Persuadere cupit : credat Judaut Apella, 
Non ego, ■ ► ' Sat. 5. lib. i. 



92 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

At Gnatia next aniv'd, we laugh*d to see 
The superstitious crowd's simplicity. 
That in the sacred temple needs would tiy 
Without a fire th' unheated gums to fry ; 
Believe who will the solemn sham, not I. 

One may see, at least, that the heathen priesthood 
had the same kind of secret among them of which 
the Roman catholics are now masters. 

I must confess, though I had lived ahove a year in 
a Roman catholic country, I was surprised to see 
many ceremonies and superstitions in Naples that 
are not so much as thought of in France. But as it 
is certain there has been a kind of secret reformation 
made, though not publicly owned, in the Roman 
catholic church, nnce the spreading of the protestant 
religion, so we find the several nations are recovered 
out of their ignorance, in proportion as they converse 
more or less with those of the reformed churches. 
For this reason the French are much more enlight- 
ened than the Spaniards or Italians, on occasion of 
their frequent controversies with the Hugonots ; 
and we find many of the Roman catholic gentlemen 
of our own country, who will not stick to laugh at 
the superstitions they sometimes meet with in other 
nations. 

I shall not be particular in describing the grandeur- 
of the city of Naples, the beauty of its pavement; 
the regularity of its buildings, tne magnificence of 
its churches and convents, the multitude of its in- 
habitants, or the delightfulness of its situation, which 
so many others have done with a great deal of leisure 
and exactness. If a war should break out, the town 
has reason to apprehend the exacting of a large con- 
tribution, or a bombardment. It has but seven 
galleys^ a mole^ and two little castles^ which are 



—J 



NAPLES. 93 

capable of hindering an enemy's approaches. Be« 
sides that^ the sea^ which lies near it^ is not subject 
to storms^ has no sensible flux and reflux^ and is so 
deep that a vessel of burden may come up to the 
very mole. The houses are flat-roofed to walk 
upon> 80 that every bomb that fell on them would 
take eflPect. 

Pictures^ statues^ and pieces of antiquity are not 
so common at Naples as one might expect in so great 
and ancient -a city of Italy; for the viceroys take 
care to send into Spain everything that is valuable 
of this nature. Two of their iinest modem statues 
are those of Apollo and Minerva, placed on each side 
of Sannazarius s tomb. On the face of this monu- 
ment, which is all of marble, and very neatly 
wrought, is represented, in bass-relief, Neptune 
among the satyrs, to show that this poet was the 
inventor of piscatory eclogues. I remember Hugo 
Grotius describes himself in one of his poems, as the 
first that brought the muses to the seaside ; but he 
must be understood only of the poets of 'his own 
ccnintry. I here saw the temple that Sannazarius 
mentions in his invocation of the blessed virgin, at 
the beginning of his De partu Firginis, which was 
all raised at his own expense. 

Niveis tibi si lolennia templU 



3erta damus ; si mansuras tibi ponimus aras 

Excise in 8Copulo,Jiuctus unde aurea canos 

Despiciens celso de culmine Mergilline 

AtioUit, nautitque procul venieniibus offert, 

Ta vatem ignarumque via ituuetumque labori 

Diva mone* — — — . — — . Lib. 1. 

Thou bright celestial goddess, if to thee 

An acceptable temple I erect. 

With fairest flow'rs and freshest garlands deckt. 



94 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

On tow'ring rocks, whence Maigelline sjnes 
The ruffled deep in storms and tempests rise ; 
Guide thou the pious poet, nor refuse 
Thine own propitious aid to his unpractised muse. 

There are seyeral very delightful prospects about 
Naples^ emecially from some of the religious houses; 
for one seldom finds in Italy a spot of ground more 
agreeable than ordinary^ that is not covered with a 
convent. The cupolas of this city^ though there are 
many of them^^do not appear to the best advantage 
when one surveys them at a distance^ as being 
generally too high and narrow. The marquis of 
Medina Cidonia, in his viceroyalty^ made the shell 
of a house^ which he had not time to finish^ that 
commands a view of the whole bay, and would have 
been a very noble building had he brought it to 
perfection. 

It stands so on the side of a mountain^ that it 
would have had a garden to every story^ by the help 
of a bridge which was to have been Lud over each 
garden. 

The bay of Naples is the most delightful one that 
I ever saw. It lies in almost a round figure of about 
thirty miles in the diameter. Three parts of it are 
sheltered with a noble circuit of woods and moun- 
tains. The high promontory of Surrentum divides 
it from the bay of Salernum. Between the utmost 
point of this promontory and the isle of Capera, the 
sea enters by a strait of about three miles wide. 
This island stands as a vast mole> which seems to 
have been planted there on purpose to break the 
violence of the waves that run into the bay. It lies 
long-ways, almost in a parallel line to Naples. The 
excessive height of its rocks secures a great part of 
the bay from winds and waves^ which enter again 



i 



NAPLES. 

between the other end of this island and the pro- 
montory of Miseno. The bay of Naples is called 
the crater by the old geographers, probably from 
this its resemblance to a round bowl half filled with 
liqnor. Perhaps Virgil, who composed here a great 
part of his ^neids^ took from hence the plan of that 
beautiful harbour which he has made in his first 
book ; for the Libyan port is but the Neapolitan bay 
in little : 

Est in secessu longo locus. Insula portum 
Efficit objectu latenim, quihus omnis ab alto 
Frangitur inque sinus scindit sese unda redttctos : 
Hine atqiie hinc vasta rupes geminique minantur 
In calum scopuli, qutrum sub vertice late 
.^Afuora tuta silent, turn sylvis scena coruscis 
Desuper, horrentique atrum nemus imminet umbrd. 

JEn, lib. 1. 

Within a long recess there lies a bay. 

An island shades it from the rolling sea. 

And forms a port secure for ships to ride. 

Broke by the putting land on either side. 

In double streams me briny waters glide 

Between two rows of rocks : a sylvan scene 

Appears above, and groves for ever green. Drydek. 

Naples stands in the bosom of this bay, and has 
the pleasantest situation in the world, though, by 
reason of its western mountains, it wants an ad- 
vantage Vitruvius would have to the front of his 
palace, of seeing the setting sun. 

One would wonder how the Spaniards, who have 
but very few forces in the kingdom of Naples^ 
should be able to keep a people from revolting that 
has been famous for its mutinies and seditions in 
former ages. But they have so well contrived it, 
that though the subjects are miserably harassed and 



96 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

oppressed, the greatest of tlieir oppressors are tbdse 
of their own body. I shall not mention anything of 
the clergy, who are sufficiently reproached in most 
Itineraries for the universal poverty that one meets 
with in this noble and plentiful kingdom. A great 
part of the people is in a state of vassalage to the 
barons, who are the harshest tyrants in the world to 
those that are under them. The vassals, indeed, 
are allowed and invited to bring in their complaints 
and appeals to the viceroy, who, to foment divisions, 
and gain the hearts of the populace, does not stick 
at imprisoning and chastising their masters very 
severely on occasion. The subjects of the crown are, 
notwithstanding, much more rich and happy than the 
vassals of the barons. Insomuch, that when the 
king has been upon the point of selling a town to 
one of his barons, the inhabitants have raised the 
sum upon themselves, and presented it to the king, 
that they might keep out of so insupportable a 
slavery. Another way the Spaniards have taken to 
grind the Neapolitans, and yet to take off the odium 
from themselves, has been by erecting several courts 
of justice, with a very small pension for such as sit 
at the head of them, so that they are tempted to 
take bribes, keep causes undecided, encourage law- 
suits, and do all they can to fleece the people, that 
they may have wherewithal to support their own 
dignity. It is incredible how great a multitude of 
retainers to the law there are at Naples. It is com- 
monly said, that when Innocent the eleventh had 
desired the marquis of Carpio to furnish him with 
thirty thousand head of swine, the marquis answered 
him, that for his swine he could not spare them, but 
if his holiness had occasion for thirty thousand 
lawyers, he had them at his service. These gentle- 



NAPLES. 9r 

men find a continual employ for the fiery temper of 
the Neapolitans, and hinder them from uniting in 
such common friendships and alliances as might en- 
danger the safety of the government. There are 
very few persons of consideration who have not a 
cause depending; for when a Neapolitan cavaliet 
has nothing else to do^ he gravely shuts himself up 
in his closet^ and falls a tumbling over his papers to 
see if he can start a lawsuit^ ana plague any of his 
neighbours. So much is the genius of this people 
changed since Statius's time. 

Nulla foro rabies, out strict^ jurgia leges 
Nirrunt : Jura viris tolumf et sinefascibus, itquum, 

Sylv. lib. 3. 

By love of right and native justice led. 
In the straight paths of equity they tread ; 
Nor know the bar, nor fear the judge's frown, 
Unpractis'd in the wranglings of the gown. 

There is another circumstance which makes the 
Neapolitans, in a very particular manner^ the oppres- 
sors of each other. The gabels of Naples are very 
high on oil, wine^ tobacco, and indeed on almost 
everything that can be eaten, drank, or worn. 
There would have been one on fruit, had not Mas- 
sianello's rebellion abolished it, as it has probably 
put a stop to many others. What makes these im- 
posts more intolerable to the poorer sort, they are 
laid on all butcher s meat, while at the same time 
the fowl and gibbier are tax-free. Besides, all meat 
being taxed equally by the pound, it happens that 
the duty lies heaviest on the coarser sorts, which are 
most likely to fall to the share of the common people, 
so that beef perhaps pays a third and veal a tenth 
of its price to the government^ a pound of either 

VOL. VI. K 



98 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

sort having the same tax fixed on it. These gabek 
are most of them at present in the hands of private 
men ; for as the king of Spain has had occasion for 
money^ he has borrowed it of the rich Neapolitans^ 
on condition that they should receive the interest 
out of such or such gabels till he could repay them 
the principal. 

This he has repeated so often^ that at present 
there is scarce a single gabel unmortgaged; so that 
there is no place in Europe which pays greater 
taxeSj and at the same time no prince who draws 
less advantage from them. In other countries the 
people have the satisfaction of seeing the money 
they give spent in the necessities^ defence^ or orna- 
ment of their state, or at least in the vanity or plea- 
sures of their prince : but here most of it goes to the 
enriching of their fellow-subjects. If there was not 
so great a plenty of everything in Naples the people 
coiud not bear it. The Spaniard, however^ reaps 
this advantage from the present posture of affairs^ 
that the murmurs of the people are turned upon 
their own countrymen, and, what is more consi- 
derable, that almost all the persons of the greatest 
wealth and power in Naples, are engaged by their 
own interests to pay these impositions cheerfully, 
and to support the goverment which has laid them 
on. For tnis reason, though the poorer sort are for 
the emperor, few of the persons of consequence can 
endure to think of a change in their present esta- 
blishment ; though there is no question but the king 
of Spain will reform most of these abuses, by break- 
ing or retrenching the power of the barons, by can- 
celling several unnecessary employs, or by ransoming 
or taking the gabels into his own hands. I have 
been told, too, there is a law of Charles the fifths 



NAPLES. $9 

something like our statute of mortmain, which has 
lain dormant ever since his time, and will probably 
have new life put into it under the reign of an active 
prince. The inhabitants of Naples have been always 
very notorious for leading a life of laziness and plea- 
sure, which I take to arise partly out of the wonder- 
ful plenty of their country, that does not make 
labour so necessary to them, and partly out of the 
temper of their climate, that relaxes the fibres of 
their bodies, and disposes the people to such an idle 
indolent humour. Whatever it proceeds from, we 
find they were formerly as famous for it as they are 
at present. 

This was perhaps the reason that the ancients tell 
us one of the sirens was buried in this city, which 
thence received the name of Parthenope. 

Improba siren 



Detidia Hob. Sat. 3. lib. 3. 

Sloth, the deluding siren of the mind. 

Et in otia natatn 

Parthenopen — — — — - 



Ovid, Met. lib. 15. 
Otiota Neapolis, Hon. Ep. 6. 

Parthenope, for idle hours design'd. 
To luxury and ease unbends the mind* 

Parthenope, non dive$ apum, non spreta vigorit; 
Nam molles urbi ritus atque hospita Mu$it 
Otia, et exemtum curis graviorihus ^vum : 
Sirenum dedit una suum memorabiU nomen 
Parthenope muris Achelo'iat, aquore ettjus 
Regnavere diu cantus, cum dulce per undas 
Exitium miteris caneret non prospei'a nautis* 

SiL. Ital. lib. 12. 

Here wanton Naples crowns the happy shore, 
Nor vainly rich, nor despicably poor, 



100 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

The town in soft solemnities delights. 

And gentle poets to her arms invites ; 

The people, free from cares, serene and gay. 

Pass all their mild untroubled hours away. 

Parthenope the rising city nam'd, 

A siren, for her songs and beauty fam'd. 

That oft had drown'd among the neighboring seas 

The listening wretch, and made destruction please. 

Hat ego te sedes (nam nee miki harhara Thrace, 

Nee Libye natale solum) transferre laboro : 

Quas et mollis hyems, etfrigida temperat ccstas : 

Qtuu imbelle /return torpentilnis alluit undis : 

Pax secura hcis, et desidis otia vittB, 

Et nunquam turbata quiet, somnique peracti : 

Nulla foro rabies, etc. Stat. Sylv. lib. 3. 

These are the gentle seats that I propose ; 
For not cold Scythia's undissolving snows. 
Nor the parch'd Libyan sands thy husband bore. 
But mild Parthenope's delightful shore. 
Where hush*d in calms the bord'ring ocean laves 
Her silent coast, and rolb in languid waves ; 
Refreshing winds the summer's heats assuage. 
And kindly warmth disarms the winter's rage ; 
Removed from noise and the tumultuous war. 
Soft sleep and downy easy inhabit there. 
And dreams unbroken with intruding care. 



THE ANTIQUITIES AND NATURAL CURIOSITIES 
THAT LIE NEAR THE CITY OF NAPLES. 

At about eight miles* distance from Naples lies 
a very noble scene of antiquities. What they call 
Virgil's tomb is the first that one meets with on 
the way thither. It is certain this poet was buried 
at Naples^ but I think it is almost as certain that 
his tomb stood on the other side of the town, tvhich 
looks towards Vesuvio. By this tomb is the entry 
into the grotto of Pausilypo. The common people 



Viaj4H. -" '!■ I ^»""— "^n^ Ml im 



ANTIQUITIES NEAR NAPLES. 101 

of Naples believe it to have been wrought by magic^ 
and that Virgil was the magician ; who is in greater 
repute among the Neapolitans for having made the 
grotto than the ^neid. 

If a man would form to himself a just idea of this 
place^ he must fancy a vast rock undermined from 
one end to the other^ and a highway running through 
it^ near as long and as broad as the mall in St. 
James*s park. This subterraneous passage is much 
mended since Seneca gave so bad a character of it. 
The entry at both ends is higher than the middle 
parts of it^ and sinks by degrees, to fling in more 
light upon the rest. Towards the middle are two ' 
large funnels^ bored through the roof of the grotto^ 
to let in light and fresh air. 

There are nowhere about the mountain any vast 
heaps of stones^ though it is certain the great quanti- 
ties of them that are dug out of the rock could not 
easily conceal themselves^ had they not probably 
been consumed in the moles and buildings of Na- 
ples. 'This confirmed me in a conjecture which I 
made at the first sight of this subterraneous passage^ 
that it was not at first designed so much for a high- 
way as for a quarry of stone^ but that the inhabi- 
tants^ finding a double advantage by it^ hewed it 
into the form we now see. Perhaps the same design 
gave the original to the Sibyl's grotto, considering 
the prodigious multitude of palaces that stood in its 
neighbourhood. 

I remember when I was at Chateaudun in France, 
I met with a very curious person, a member of one 
of the German universities. He had staid a day 
or two in the town longer than ordinary, to take the 
measures of several empty spaces that had been cut 
in the sides of a neighbouring mountain. Some of 

k3 



lOa REMARKS ON ITALY. 

them were supported with pillars formed oat of the^ 
rock, some were made in the fashion of galleries, 
apd some not unlike amphitheatres. The gentle-» 
man had made to himself several ingenious hypo- 
theses concerning the use of these subterraneous 
apartments^ and from thence collected the vast mag-» 
nificence and luxury of 'the ancient Chateaudunois. 
But upon communicating his thoughts upon this 
subject to one of the most learned of the place> he 
was not a little surprised to hear that these stupend- 
ous works of art were only so many quarries of free- 
stone^ that had been wrought into different figures^ 
according as the veins of it directed the workmen. 

About five miles from the grotto of Pausilypo lie 
the remains of Puteoli and Bajse^ in a soft air and a 
delicious situation. 

llie country about them, by reason of its vast 
caverns and subterraneous fires> has been miserably 
torn in pieces by earthquakes, so that the whole face 
of it is quite changed from what it was formerly. 
The sea has overwhelmed a multitude of palaces, 
which may be seen at the bottom of the water in a 
calm day. 

The Lucrine lake is but a puddle in comparison 
of what it once was, its springs having been sunk in 
an earthquake, or stopped up by mountains that 
have fallen upon them. The lake of Avernus, for- 
merly so famous for its streams of poison, is now 
plentifully stocked with fish and fowl. Mount 
Gaurus, mmi one of the fruitfullest parts in Italy, is 
become one of the most barren. Several fields, 
which were laid out in beautiful groves and gardens,, 
are now naked plains, smoking with sulphur, or 
encumbered with hills that have been thrown up by 
eruptions of fire. The works of art lie in no less 



ANTIQUITIES NEAR NAPLES. 1Q3 

dkorder than those of nature ; for that which waa 
oaoe the most beautiful. spot of Italy^ covered with 
temples and palaceS; adorned by the greatest of the 
Roman commonwealth^ embellished by many of the 
Roman emperors^ and celebrated by the best of their 
poets^ has now nothing to show but the ruins of its 
ancient splendour^ and a great magnificence in con- 
fusion. 

The mole of Puteoli has been mistaken by several 
authors for Caligula's bridge. They have all be^i 
led into this error from the make of it^ because it 
stands on arches. But to pass over the many argu- 
ments that may be brought against this opinion^ I 
shall here take away the foundation of it^ by setting 
down an inscription mentioned by Julius Capitolinus 
in the life of Antoninus Pius^ who was the repairer 
of this mole. Imp, Ccesari, Divu Hadriani. jUw, 
DivL Trajani. Parlhici. Nepoti, DivL Nervce^ prO'> 
nepati, T. Act, Hadriano, Antonino. Aug, Pio, etc. 
quod mper ccetera beneficia ad hujus etiam tutelam 
partus, Pilarum viginti molem cum sumptu fomicum 
reliquo tx JErario suo largitus est. 

It would have been very difficult to have made 
such a mole as this of Puteoli^ in a place where they 
had not so natural a commodity as the earth of 
Puzzuola^ which immediately hardens in the watery 
and after a little lying in it^ looks rather like stone 
than mortar. It was this that gave the ancient 
Romans an opportunity of making so many en- 
croachments on the sea^ and of laying the founda- 
tions of their villas and palaces within the very- 
borders of it^ as Horace ^ has elegantly described it 
more than once. 

About four years ago they dug up a great piece of 

1 Lib. ii. od. 18 -, Ub. iii. od. i ; lib. iii. od. 24; Epist. lib. i. 



104 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

mail)le near Puzzuola> with several figures and 
letters engraven round it^ which have given occasion 
to some disputes among the antiquaries ^. But they 
all agree that it is the pedestal of a statue erected to 
Tiberius by the fourteen cities of Asia^ which was 
flung down by an earthquake ; the same that^ ac- 
cording to the opinion of many learned men^ hap- 
pened at our Saviour's crucifixion. They have found 
in the letters^ which are still legible^ the names of 
the several cities^ and discover in each figure some- 
thing particular to the city^ of which it represents 
the genius. There are two medals of Tiberius 
stamped on the same occasion^ with this inscription 
to one of them^ Civitatibus Asics Restitutis. The 
emperor is represented in both sittings with a patera 
in one hand and a spear in the other. 

It is probable this might have been the posture of 
the statue^ which in all likelihood does not lie far 
from the place where they took up the pedestal ; for 
they say there were other great pieces of marble 
near it^ and several of them inscribed^ but that 
nobody would be at the charges of bringing them to 
light. The pedestal itself lay neglected in an open 
field when I saw it. I shall not be particular on the 
ruins of the amphitheatre^ the ancient reservoirs of 
water, the Sibyl s grotto, the Centum CamercB, the 
sepulchre of Agrippina, Nero's mother, with several 
other antiquities of less note, that lie in the neigh- 
bourhood of this bay, and have been often described 
by many others. 1 must confess, after having sur- 
veyed the antiquities about Naples and Rome, I 
cannot but think that our admiration of them does 
not so much arise out of their greatness as uncom- 
monness. 

' Vide Gronovium, Fabretti, Bulifon, etc. 



Vol. IV. PI. 11. 



fu<fe Jt>4. 




:\1.KX)A1.5 



Pa<ff 204. 




/U^ J45. 



Ta^ 1-tA. 





/%i^<* I3S. 



Viy« 7^ J.. 





ANTIQUITIES NEAR NAPLES. 105 

There are indeed many extraordinary ruins^ but I 
believe a traveller would not be so much astonished 
^ them^ did he find any works of the same kind 
in his own country. Amphitheatres^ triumphal 
archeSj baths, grottoes, catacombs, rotundas, high- 
ways paved for so great a length, bridges of such an 
amazing height, subterraneous buildings for the 
reception of rain and snow water, are most of them 
at present out of fashion, and only to be met with 
among the antiquities of Italy. We are therefore 
immediately surprised when we see any considerable 
sums laid out in anything of this nature, though at 
the same time there is many a Gothic cathedral in 
England, that has cost more pains and money than 
several of these celebrated worKs. Among the ruins 
pf the old heathen temples they showed me what 
they call the chamber of Venus, which stands a little 
behind her temple. It is wholly dark, and has several 
figures on the ceiling wrought in stucco, that seem 
to represent lust and strength by the emblems q£ 
naked Jupiters and gladiators, tritons and cen- 
taurs, etc. so that one would guess it has formerly 
been the scene of many lewd mysteries. On the 
other' side of Naples are the catacombs. These must 
have been full of stench and loathsomeness, if the 
dead bodies that lay in them were left to rot in open 
niches, as an eminent author of our own country 
imagines. But upon examining them I find they 
were each of them stopped up: %vithout doubt as 
soon as the corpse was laid in it. For at the moutb 
of the niche one always finds the rock cut into little 
channels, to fasten the board or marble that was to 
close it up, and I think I did not see one which had 
not still some mortar sticking in it. 'In some I 
found 'pieces of tiles that exactly tallied with the 
eh4nni^'^> and in others a little wall of bricks^ that 



I 



106 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

sometimes stopped up above a quarter of the niche^ 
the rest having been broken down. St. Proculus's 
sepulchre seems to have a kind of mosaic work on its 
covering ; for I observed at one end of it several little 

lieces of marble ranged together after that manner. 

t is probable they were adorned^ more or less^ 
according to the quality of the dead. One would, 
indeed, wonder to find such a multitude of niches 
unstopped^ and I cannot imagine anybody should 
take the pains to do it, who was not in quest of 
some supposed treasure. 

Baje was the winter retreat of the old Romans, 
that being the proper season to enjoy the Bajani 
soles, and the Mollis Lucrinus ; as on the contrary, 
Tibur, Tuscttlum, Preneste, Alba, Cajeta, Mons 
Circeius, Anxur, and the like airy mountains and 
promontories, were their retirements during the 
oeats of summer. 

Dum nos blanda tenet laseivi stagna Tjtierinif 

Et ^[Si fWmiiiiif&niihus antra calent : 
Tu coUt Argivi regnum, Fauttine, coloni*. 

Quo te bis decimus dueit ab wrbe lapis. 
Borrida sed fervent Nemetti pectora monstri : 

Nee satis est, Bajas igne calere suo^ 
Ergo saerifontes, et littora grata vaUte, 

Nympharum pariter, Nereidumque domuSg 
HtrcuUos eoLles gelidd vos viticite brtanA, 

Nunc Tiburtinis ceditefrigorihus* 

Mar. lib. iv. £p. 67. 

While near the Lucrine lake, consumed to death, 
I draw the sultry air, and gasp for breath, 
Where steams of sulphur raise a stifling heat, 
And through the pores of the warm pumice sweat ; 
You taste the cooling breeze, where nearer home 
The twenUeth pillar marks the mile from Rome : 
And now the sun to the bright lion turns. 
And Baja with redoubled fury bums; 

9 Vide Hor. Ub. ii. od. 2. 



ANTIQUITIES NEAR NAPLES. 107 

Then briny seas and tasteful springs fkrewell. 
Where fountain-nyniphs, confus'd with Nereids^ dwell. 
In winter }rou may all the world despise, 
But now 'tis Tiyoli that bears the pnze. 

The natural curiosities about Naples are as nu- 
merous and as extraordinary as the artificial. I 
shall set them down^ as I have done the other^ with- 
out any regard to their situation. The grotto del 
Cam is famous for the poisonous steams which float 
within a foot of its surface. The sides of the grotto 
are marked green^ as high as the malignity of the 
vapour reaches. The common experiments are as 
follow : A d(^ that has his nose held in the vapour, 
loses all signs of life in a very little time ; but if 
carried into the open air, or thrown into a neigh- 
bouring lake^ he immediately recovers^ if he is not 
quite gone. A torch, snuff and all, goes out in a 
moment when dipped into the vapour. A pistol 
cannot take fire in it. I split a reed, and laid in 
the channel of it a train of gunpowder, so that one 
end of the reed was above the vapour, and the other 
at the bottom of it ; and I found, though the steam 
was strong enough to hinder a pistol from taking fire 
in it, and to quench a lighted torch, that it could 
not intercept the train of fire when it had once 
begun flashing, nor hinder it from running to the 
very end. This experiment I repeated twice or 
thrice, to see if I could quite dissipate the vapour, 
which I did in so great a measure, that one might 
easily let off a pistol in it. I observed how long a 
dog was in expiring the first time, and after his 
recovery, and found no sensible difference. A 
viper bore it nine minutes the first time we put 
it in, and ten the second. When we brought it 
out after the first trial, it took such a vast quanti^ 



108 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

of air into its lungs, that it swelled almost twice 
as big as before ; and it was perhaps on this stock 
of air that it lived a minute longer the second 
time. Dr. Connor made a discourse in one of the 
academies at Rome upon the subject of this grotto^ 
which he has since printed in England. He attri- 
butes the death of animals, and the extinction of 
lights, to a great rarefaction of the air, caused by 
the heat and eruption of the steams. But how is it 
possible for these steams, though in never so great 
quantity, to resist' the pressure of the whole atmo- 
sphere f And as for the heat, it is but very inconsi- 
derable. However, to satisfy myself, I placed a 
thin vial, well stopped up with wax^ within the 
smoke of the vapour^ which would certainly have 
burst in an air rarefied enough to kill a dog, or 
quench a torch^ but nothing followed upon it. 
However, to take away all farther doubt, I bor- 
rowed a weather-glass^ and so fixed it in the grotto^ 
that the stagnum was wholly covered with the 
vapour, but I could not perceive the quicksilver 
sunk, after half an hour's standing in it. This 
vapour is generally supposed to be sulphureous, * - 
though I can see no reason for such a supposition. 
He that dips his hand in it, finds no smell that it 
leaves upon it ; and though I put a whole bundle of 
lighted brimstone matches to the smoke, they all 
went out in an instant, as if immersed in water. 
Whatever is the composition of the vapour, let it 
have but one quality of being very gluy or viscous, 
and I believe it Avill mechanically solve all the 
phenomena of the grotto. Its unctuousness will 
make it heavy, and unfit for mounting higher than 
it does, unless the heat of the earth, which is just 
strong enough to agitate, and bear it up at a little 



ANTIQUITIES NEAR NAPLES. 109 

distance from the surface^ were much greater than it 
is to rarefy and scatter it. It will be too gross and 
thick to keep the lungs in play for any time^ so that 
animals will die in it sooner or later^ as their blood 
circulates slower or faster. Fire will live in it no 
longer than in water^ because it wraps itself in the 
same manner about the flame^ and by its continuity 
hinders any quantity of air or nitre from coming to 
its succour. The parts of it^ however^ are not so 
compact as those oi liquors^ nor therefore tenacious 
enough to intercept the fire that has once caught a 
train of gunpowder^ for which reason they may be 
quite broken and dispersed by the repetition of this 
experiment. There is an unctuous clammy vapour 
that arises from the stum of grapes^ when they lie 
mashed together in the vat, which puts out a fight 
when dipped into it, and perhaps would take away 
the breath of weaker animals, were it put to the trial. 
It would be endless to reckon up the different 
baths to be met with in a country that so much 
abounds in sulphur. There is scarce a disease which 
has not one adapted to it. A stranger is senerally 
led into that they call Cicero's bath, and several 
voyage writers pretend there is a cold vapour rising 
from the bottom of it, which refreshes those who 
stoop into it. It is true the heat is much more sup- 
portable to one that stoops than to one that stands 
upright, because the steams of sulphur gather in the 
hollow of the arch about a man's head, and are 
therefore much thicker and warmer in that part than 
at the bottom^ The three lakes of Agnano, Aver- 
nus, and the Lucrine, have now nothing in them par- 
ticular. The Monte Novo was thrown out by an 
eruption of fire that happened in the place where 
now the mountain stands. The Sulfatara is very 

VOL. IV. L 



110 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

surprising to one who has not seen mount Vesuvio. 
But there is nothins about Naples^ nor indeed in 
any part of Italy^ which deserves our admiration so 
much as this mountain. I must confess the idea I 
had of it did not answer the real image of the place 
when I came to see it; I shall therefore give the 
description of it as it then lay. 

This mountain stands at about six English miles' 
distance from Naples^ though^ by reason of its height^ 
it seems much nearer to those that survey it mm. 
the town. In our way to it we passed by what was 
one of those rivers of burning matter^ that ran from 
it in a late eruption. This looks at a distance like 
a new ploughed land, but^ as you come near it> you 
see nothing but a long heap of heavy disjointed 
dods lying one upon another. There are innumer- 
able cavities and interstices among the several pieces^ 
so that the surface is all broken and irregular. 
Sometimes a great fragment stands like a rock above 
the rest> sometimes the whole heap lies in a kind of 
channel^ and in other places has nothing like banks 
to confine it^ but rises four or ^ve foot high in the 
open air^ without spreading abroad on either side. 
This> I thinks is a plain demonstration that these 
rivers were not> as they are usually represented^ so 
many streams of running matter ; for how could a 
liquid^ that lay hardening by degrees^ settle in such 
a furrowed uncompact surfece? Were the river a 
confusion of never so many different bodies^ if they 
had been all actually dissolved^ they would at least 
have formed one continued crusty as we see the sco- 
rium of metals always gathers into a solid piece> let 
it be compounded of a thousand heterogeneous parts. 
I am apt to thinks therefore^ that these huge un- 
wieldy lumpS; that now lie one upon another as if 



ANTIQUITIES NEAR NAPLES. Ill 

thrown together by aocident> remained in the melted 
matter rigid and imliquified^ floating in it like cakes 
of ice in a riirer> and that, as the fire and ferment 
gradually abated^ they adjusted themselves tc^ther 
as well as their irr^ular figures would permit^ and 
by this means fell into •such an interrupted dis- 
orderly heap as we now find it. What was the 
melted matter lies at the bottom out of sight. After 
having quitted the side of this long heap^ which was 
once a stream of fire^ we came to the roots of the 
mountain^ and had a very troublesome march to gain 
the top of it. It is covered on all sides with a 
kind of burnt earthy very dry and crumbled into 
powder^ as if it had been artificially sifted. It is 
very hot under the feet^ and mixed with several 
burnt stones and cakes of cinders^ which have been 
thrown out at different times. A man sinks almost 
a foot in the earthy and generally loses half a step by 
sliding backwards. When we had climbed this 
mountain we discovered the top of it to be a \vide 
naked plain^ smoking with sulphur in several places^ 
and probably undermined with fire; for we concluded 
It to be hollow by the sound it made under our feet. 
In the midst of this plain stands a high hill in the 
shape of a sugar-loaf, so very steep that there would 
be no mounting or descending it^ were it not made 
up of such a loose crumbled earth as I have before 
described. The air of this place must be very much 
ipipregnated with saltpetre, as appears by the specks 
of it on the sides of the mountain, where one can 
scarce find a stone that has not the top white with 
it. After we had, with much ado, conquered this 
bill, we saw in the midst of it the present mouth c^ 
Vesuvio, which goes shelving down on all sides till 
above a hundred yards deep, as near as we could 



112 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

guess^ and has about three or four hundred in the 
diuneter^ for it seems a perfect round. This vast 
hollow is generally tilled with smoke^ but by the 
advantage of a wind that blew for us^ we had a very 
clear and distinct sight of it. The sides appear all 
over stained with mixtures of white^ green> red^ and 
yellow^ and have several rocks standing out of them 
that look like pure brimstone. The bottom was en- 
tirely covered^ and though we looked very narrowly 
we could see nothing like a hole in it ; the smoke 
breaking through several imperceptible cracks in 
many places. The very middle was firm ground 
when we saw it^ as we concluded from the stones we 
flung upon it^ and I question not but one might then 
have crossed the bottom^ and have gone up on the 
other side of it with very little danger^ unless from 
some accidental breath of wind. In the late erup- 
tions this great hollow was like a vast caldron filled 
mth flowing and melted matter^ which^ as it boiled 
over m any part^ ran down the sides of the moun- 
tain^ and made five such rivers as that before men- 
tioned. In proportion as the heat slackened, this 
burning matter must have subsided within the 
bowels of the mountain; and as it sunk very 
leisurely, had time to cake together and form the 
bottom which covers the mouth of that dreadful 
vault that lies underneath it. The next eruption 
or earthquake will probably break in pieces this 
false bottom, and quite change the present face of 
things. 

This whole mountain, shaped like a sugar-loaf, 
has been made at several times by the prodigious 

Quantities of earth and cinders which have been 
ung up out of the mouth that lies in the midst of 
them, so that it increases in bulk at every eruption. 



ANTIQUrnES NEAR NAPLES. 113 

the ashes still fEilling down the sides of it like the 
sand in an hourglass. A gentleman of Naples told 
me> that in his memory it had gained twenty foot in 
thickness^ and I question not but in length of time 
it will cover the whole plain^ and make one moun^ 
tain with that on which it now stands. 

In those parts of the sea that are not hi from the 
roots of this mountain^ they find sometimes a very 
fragrant oil^ which is sold dear^ and makes a rich 
perfmne. The surface of the sea is, for a little 
space^ covered with its bubbles during the time that 
it rises^ which they skim off into their boats^ and 
afterwards set a separating in pots and jars. They 
say its sources never run but in a calm warm 
weather. The agitations of the water perhaps 
hinder them from discovering it at other times. 

Among the natural curiosities of Naples, I cannot 
forbear mentioning their manner of furnishing the 
town with snow> which they here use instead of ice^ 
because^ as they say^ it cools or congeals any liquor 
sooner. There is a great quantity of it consumed 
yearly, for they drink very rew liquors, not so much 
as water^ that have not lain in fresco^ and every 
body^ from the highest to the lowest, makes use of 
it ; insomuch that a scarcity of snow would raise a 
mutiny- at Naples, as much as a dearth of com or 
provisions in another country. To prevent this, the 
lung has sold the monopoly of it to certain persons, 
who are obliged to furnish the city with it all the 
year at so much the pound. They have a high 
mountain at about eighteen miles nrom the town, 
whieh has several pitM dug into it. Here they em- 
ploy many poor people at such a season of the year 
to roll in vast balls of snow, which they ram toge- 
ther^ and cover from the sunshine. CJut of these 

l3 



114 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

reservoirs of snow they cut several lamps^ a» they 
have occasion for them^ and send them on asses to 
the seaside^ where they are carried off in boats^ and 
distributed to several shops at a settled price^ that 
from time to time supply the whole city of Naples* 
While the banditti continued their disorders in thi& 
kingdom^ they often put the snow-merchants under 
contribution^ and threatened them^ if they appeared 
tardy in their payments^ to destroy their magazines,^ 
which they say might easily have been effected by 
the infusion of some barrels of oil. 

It would have been tedious to have put down the 
many descriptions that the Latin poets have made of 
several of the places mentioned in this chapter : I 
shall therefore conclude it with the general map 
which Silius Italicus has given us of this great bay 
of Naples. Most of the places he mentions lie 
within the same prospect^ and if I have passed over 
any of them> it is because I shall take them in my 
way by sea^ from Naples to Rome : 

Stagna inter ceUbrem nunc mitia monstrat Avemum : 

Turn tristi nemore atque umbris nigrantibus horrens, 

Etformidatus volucri, letaU vomebat 

SuffuM vinu c<eIo, Stygidque per urbes 

Religione sacer scvum retinehat honorem, 

Hinc vicina palu$,fama est AckerontU ad undas 

Pandere iter, ascas stagnante voretgine fauces 

Laxat, et horrendos aperit telluris hiatus, 

Interdumque novo perturbat lumine manes, 

Juxta caligante situ longumque per avum 

Infemis presscu nebulis, pallente sub umbrd 

Ctmmerias jacuisse domos, noctemque profundam 

Tartarea narrant urMs : turn sulphure et igni 

Semper anhelantes coctoque bitumine campos « 

Ostentant : tellus atro exundante vapore 

Suspirans, ustisque diu calefacta medullis, 

^stuat, et Stygios exhalat in aera flatus: 

Parturit, et tremulis metuendum exsibUat antris, 



ANTIQUITIES NEAR NAPLES. 115 

Interdumqtu eavas luctatus rumpere sedes, 

Aut exireforat, tonitu lugubre tninaci 

Mulciber immugit, lacerataque viscera temt 

Jdavdity et exesos labtfactat murmure monies, 

Tradunt Herculed prostrates mole gigantes 

Tellurem injectam quattre, et spiramine anhelo 

Torreri late campos, quotiesque minantur 

Rumpere compagem impositam, expallescere calum. 

Apparet Prochyte stevum sortita Mimanta ; 

Apparet procul Jnarime, qua turbine nigro 

Fumantem premit lapetum flanunasque rebelli 

Ore ejectantem, et, si quando evadere detur, 

Bella Jovi rursus superisque iterare volentem. 

Monstrantur Vesevajuga, atque in vertice summo 

Depasti Jlammis scopuli,jfractusque ruind 

Mons circum, atque JEtruefatis certantia saxa* 

Nee non Misenum servantem IdtMt sepulchre 

Nomina, et Hereuleos videt ipso in littore Baulos. lib. 12« 

Avemo next he show'd his wond'ring guest, 
Avemo now with milder virtues blest -, 
Black with surrounding forests then it stood. 
That hung above, and darken*d all the flood ; 
Clouds of unwholesome vapours, raised on high. 
The fluttering bird entangled in the sky. 
Whilst all around the gloomy prospect spread 
An awful horror, and religious dread. 
Hence to the borders of the marsh they go. 
That mingles with the baleful streams below, 
And sometimes with a mighty yawn, 'tis said. 
Opens a dismal passage to the dead« 
Who, pale with fear, 2ie rending earth survey. 
And startle at the sudden flash of day. 
The dark Cimmerian grotto then he paints. 
Describing all its old inhabitants. 
That in the deep infernal city dwell'd. 
And lay in everlasting night concealed. 
Advancing still, the spacious fields he show'd, 
Tj^at with the smother'd heat of brimstone glow'd ; 
Through frequent cracks the steaming sulphur broke. 
And cover'd all the blasted plain with smoke : 
Imprisoned fires, in the close dungeons pent, 
Koar to get loose, and struggle for a vent. 



A 



1 



116 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

£atin|[ their way, and undennining all. 

Till with a migh^ burst whole mountains fall. 

Here, as 'tis said, the rebel giants lie. 

And, when to move th' incumbent losid they tiy. 

Ascending vapours on the day prevail. 

The sun looks sickly, and the skies grow pale. 

Next to the distant isle his sight he turns, 

That o*er the thunderstruck Tipheus bums : 

Enrag'd, his wide extended jaws expire. 

In angry whirlwinds, blasphemies, and fire, 

Threat'ninff, if loosen'd from his dire abodes. 

Again to challen^ Jove, and fight the gods. 

On mount Vesuvio next he fix'd his eyes. 

And saw the smoking tops confus'dly rise ; 

(A. hideous ruin !) that with earthqiuikes rent 

A second ^tna to the view present. 

Miseno's cape and Bauli last he view'd. 

That on the sea's extremest borders stood. 

Silius Italicos here takes notice^ that the poison- 
ous vapours which arose from the lake Avemo in 
Hannibal's time> were quite disperse^i at the time 
when he wrote his poem; because Aorippa^ who 
lived between Hannibal and Silius> had cut down 
the woods that inclosed the lake> and hindered these 
noxious streams from dissipating^ which were im- 
mediately scattered as soon as the winds and fresh 
air were let in among them. 

THE ISLE OF CAPREA. 

HAvnYO staid longer at Naples than I at first de- 
signed^ I could not dispense with myself from mak- 
ing a little voyage to the isle of Caprea^ as being 
veij desirous to see a place which had been the 
returement of Augustus for some time^ and the re- 
sidence of Tiberius for several years. The island 
lies four miles in length from east to west^ and about 



THE ISLE OF CAPREA. 117 

one in breadth. The western part^ for about two 
miles in lengthy is a continued roick^ vastly high^ and 
inaccessible on the sea side. It has^ however^ the 
greatest town in the island^ that goes under the 
name of Ano-Caprea^ and is in several places covered 
with a very fruitful soil. The eastern end of the 
isle rises up in precipices very near as high^ though 
not quite so long^ as the western. Between these 
eastern and western mountains lies a slip of lower 
ground^ which runs across the island, and is one of 
the pleasantest spots I have seen. It is hid with 
vines^ figs, oranges, almonds, olives, myrtles, and 
fields of corn, which look extremely fresh and beauti- 
ful, and make up the most delightful little landscape 
imaginable, when they are surveyed from the tops 
of the neighbouring mountains. Here stand the 
town of Caprea, the bishop s palace, and two or three 
convents. In the midst of this fruitful tract of land 
rises a bill, that was probably covered with buildings 
in Tiberius's time. There are still several ruins on 
the sides of it, and about the top are found two er 
three dark galleries, low built, and covered with 
mason's work, though at present they appear over- 
grown with grass. I entered one of them that is a 
hundred paces in length. I observed, as some of the 
countrymen were digging into the sides of this 
mountain, that what I took for solid earth was only 
heaps of brick, stone, and other rubbish, skinned 
over with a covering of vegetables. But the most 
considerable ruin is that which stands on the very 
extremity of the eastern promontory, where are still 
some apartments left, very high and arched at top : 
I have not, indeed, seen the remains of any ancient 
Roman buildings, that have not been roofed with 
either vaults or arches. The rooms I am mentioning 



118 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

stand deep in the earthy and have nothing like win« 
dows or chimneys^ which makes me think they were 
formerly either bathing-places or reservoirs of water. 
An old hermit lives at present among the ruins of 
this palace^ who lost his companion a few years ago 
by a fall from the precipice. He told me they had 
often found medals and pipes of lead as they dug 
amonff the rubbishy and that not many years ago 
they discovered a paved road running under ground^ 
from the top of the mountain to the seaside^ which 
was afterwards confirmed to me by a gentleman of 
the island. There is a very noble prospect from this 
place. On the one side Ues a vast extent of seas^ 
that runs abroad frurther than the eye can reach. 
Just opposite stands the green promontory of Sur- 
rentum^ and on the other side the whole circuit of 
the bay of Naples. This prospect^ according to 
Tacitus^ was more agreeable before the burning of 
Vesuvio ; that mountain^ probably, which after the 
first eruption looked like a great pile of ashes, was 
in Tiberius's time shaded with wooos and vineyards ; 
for I think Martial's epigram may here serve as a 
comment to Tacitus : 

Hie est pampineis viridis modo Vesviits umbris, 

Presserat hie madidos nobilis uva lucus, 
Hacjuga, qvam Nisoi colles, plus BacchiLS amavit : 

Hoc nuper satyri monte dedere chtrros, 
H<ec Veneris sedes, Lcu:edcemone gratiar illi; 

Hie locus Herculeo nomine clarus erat, 
Cuneta jaeent flammis et tristi mersafavilld : 

Nee superi vellent hoc licuisse sibi. Lib. iv. ep. 46. 

Vesuvio, cover'd with the fruitful vine. 
Here flourished once, and ran with floods of wine. 
Here Bacchus oft to the cool shades retir'd, - 
And his own native Nisa less admired ; 



THE ISLE OF CAPREA. 119 

Oft to the mountain's airy tops advanced. 
The frisking satyrs on the summits danc'd ; 
Alcides here, here Venus g^rac'd the shore. 
Nor lov'd her favorite LacMsmon more : 
Now piles of ashes, spreading all around, 
In undistinguish'd heaps deform the ground. 
The gods themselves the ruin'd seats bemoan. 
And blame the mischiefs that themselves have done. 

This view, must still have been {[lore pleasant, 
when the whole bay was encompassed with so long 
a range of buildings, that it appeared to those who 
looked on it at a distance but as one continued city. 
On both the shores of that fruitful bottom, which I 
have before mentioned, are still to be seen the marks 
of ancient edifices ; particularly on that which looks 
towards the south there is a little kind of mole, 
which seems to have been the foundation of a palace ; 
unleiss we may suppose that the Pharos of Caprea 
stood there, which Statins takes notice of in his poem 
that invites his wife to Naples, and is, I think, the 
most natural among the Sylve : 

Nee ^sunt varia circum oblectamina mta, 
Sive vaporiferas, blandissima littora, Biifas, 
Entheafatidic£ $eu visere tecta SibylUs, 
Dulce sit, Iliacoquejugum memortdnle remo : 
Seu tibi Bacchei vineta madentia Gauri, 
TeleboHLmque domotg trepidis ubi dulcia nautit 
Lumina noctivagis tollit Bharos temula lurus, 
Caraque non mollijuga Surrentina Lytto, Lib* 3. 

The blissful seats with endless pleasures flow. 
Whether to Baja's sunny shores you go. 
And view the sulphur to the baths convey'd. 
Or the dark grot of the prophetic maid. 
Or steep Miseno from the Trojan nam'd. 
Or Gaurus for its flowing vintage fam'd. 
Or Caprea, where the lantern &ed on high 
Shines like a moon through the benighted sky, 



no REMARKS ON ITALY. 

While by its beams the wary sailor steers : 
Or where Surrentum, clad in vines, appears. 

They found in Ano-Caprea^ some years ago^ a 
statue and a rich pavement under ground^ as they 
bad occasion to turn up the earth that lay upon 
them. One still sees^ on the bendings of these 
mountains^ the marks of several ancient scales of 
stairs, by which they used to ascend them. The 
whole island is so unequal that there were but few 
diversions to be found in it without doors ; but what 
recommended it most to Tiberius was its wholesome 
air, which is warm in winter and cool in summer, 
'and its inaccessible coasts, which are generally so 
very steep, that a handful of men might defend them 
against a powerful army. 

We need not doubt but Tiberius had his different 
residences, according as the seasons of the year and 
his different sets of pleasure required. Suetonius 
says, duodecim villas totidem nominibus ornavit. 
The whole island was probably cut into several easy 
ascents, planted with variety of palaces, and adorned 
with as great a multitude of groves andj^rdens as 
the situation of the place would suffer. The works 
under ground were, however, more extraordinary 
than those above it ; for the rocks were all under- 
mined with highways, grottoes, galleries, bagnios, 
and several subterraneous retirements, that suited 
with the brutal pleasures of the emperor. One 
would, indeed, very much wonder to see such small 
appearances of the many works of art that were 
formerly to be met with in this island, were we not 
told that the Romans, after the death of Tiberius, 
sent hither an army of pioneers on purpose to de- 
molish the buildings, and deface the beauties of the 
island. 



THE ISLE OF CAPREA. 121 

In saOing round Caprea we were entertained with 
many rude prospects of rocks and precipices^ that 
rise in several places half a mile high in perpen- 
dicular. At the bottom of them are caves and grot- 
toes^ formed by the continual breaking of the waves 
upon them. I entered one which the inhabitants 
call grotto oscurOy and after the light of the sun was 
a little worn off my eyes^ could see all the parts of it 
distinctly, by a glimmering reflection that played 
upon them from the surface of the water. The 
mouth is low and narrow, but^ after having entered 
pretty far in, the grotto opens itself on both sides in 
an oval figure of a hundred yards from one ex- 
tremity to the other, as we were told, for it would 
not have been safe measuring of it. The roof is 
vaulted, and distils fresh water from every part of it, 
which fell upon us as fast as the first droppings of a 
shower. The inhabitants and Neapolitans who have 
heard of Tiberius's grottoes, will have this to be one 
of them ; but there are several reasons that show it 
to be natural. For besides the little use we can 
conceive of such a dark cavern of salt waters, there 
are nowhere any marks of the chisel ; the sides are 
of a soft mouldering stone, and one sees many of the 
like hollow spaces worn in the bottoms of the rocks, 
as they are more or less able to resist the impressions 
of the water that beats against them. 

Not far from this grotto lie the Sirenum Scopuli, 
which Virgil and Ovid mention in ^neas's voyage ; 
they are two or three sharp rocks that stand about a 
stone's throw from the south side of the island, and 
are generally beaten by waves and tempests, which 
are much more violent on the south than on the 
north of Caprea. 

VOL. IV. M 



122 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

Jamque adeo seapulos Sirenum advecta iubibat 
Difficiles quondamf tnultoruTnqtie ossibus albos. 
Turn rauca auiduo longe sale saxa sonabant. JEx. 

Glides bv the Syren's cliffs, a shelfy coast. 
Long in&mous for ships and sailors lost. 
And white with bones: th' impetuous ocean roars. 
And rocks rebellow from the sounding shores. 

Dryden. 

I have before said that they often find medals in 
this island. Many of those they call the Spintrise^ 
which Aretin has copied, have been dug up here. I 
know none of the antiquaries that have written on 
this subject, and find nothing satisfactory of it where 
I thought it most likely to be met with, in Patin's 
edition of Suetonius, illustrated by medals. Those 
I have conyersed with about it, are of opinion they 
were made to ridicule the brutality of Tiberius, 
though I cannot but believe they were stamped by 
his order. They are unquestionably antique, and 
no bigger than medals of the third magnitude. 
They bear on one side some lewd invention of that 
hellish society which Suetonius calls monstrost con^ 
cubitus repertores^ and on the other the number of 
the medal. I have seen of them as high as to 
twenty. I cannot think they were made as a jest 
on the emperor, because raillery on coins is of a 
modem date. I know but two in the upper empire, 
besides the Spintriie, that lie under any suspicion of 
it. The first is one of Marcus Aurelius, where, in 
compliment to the emperor and empress, they have 
stamped on the reverse the figure of Venus caressing 
Mars, and endeavouring to detain him from the 
wars. 



'Quoniam belli f era nusnera Mavors 



Armipotens rtgitf in gremium qui stepe tuum se 

Rejicit, tftemo devinctus volnere amoris, Lvcr. lib. 1. 



THE ISLE OF CAPREA. 123 

The Venus has Faustina's f&ce, her lover is a 
naked figure with a helmet on his head^ and a shield 
on his arm ; 

Tu scabie frueris nuUi quod in oggere rodit, 

Qui tegitur, parm& et galea. Juv. Sat. 5. 

This unluckily brings to mind Faustina's fondness 
for the gladiator^ and is therefore interpreted by 
many as a hidden piece of satire. But besides that 
such a thought was inconsistent with the gravity of 
a senate^ how can one imagine that the fathers 
would have dared affront the wife of Aurelius^ and 
the mother of Commodus^ or that they could think 
of giving offence to an empress whom they after- 
wards deified^ and to an emperor that was the 
darling of the army and people ? 

The other medal is a golden one of Gallienus pre- 
served in the French king*s cabinet ; it is inscribed 
GalliencB Augustas^ pax ubique, and was stamped at 
a time when the emperor's father was in bondage, 
and the empire torn in pieces by several pretenders 
to it. Yet^ if one considers the strange stupiditv 
of this emperor, with the senseless security which 
appears in several of his sayings that are still left on 
record, one may very well believe this coin was of 
his own invention. We may be sure, if raillery had 
once entered the old Roman coins, we should have 
been overstocked with medals of this nature ; if we 
consider there were often rival emperors proclaimed 
at the same time, who endeavoured at the lessening 
of each other's character, and that most of them were 
succeeded by such as were enemies to their pre- 
decessor. These medals of Tiberius's were never 
current money, but rather of the nature of medal- 
lions^ which seem to have been made on purpose to 



124 . REMARKS ON ITALY. 

perpetuate the discoveries of that infamous society. 
Suetonius tells us that their monstrous inventions 
were registered several ways^ and preserved in the 
emperor s private apartments. Cubtcula plurifariam 
disposita tabellis ac sigiilis lascivissimarum pictU' 
rarum etjlgurarum adornavit, librisq^e Elephantidis 
instruxit: ne cui in operd edendd exemplar impe- 
tratcB schema: deesset The Elephantis here men- 
tioned is probably the same Martial takes notice of 
for her book of postures : 

In Sahellunu 

FaeundoSf mihi de libidtTiosis 

Legisti nimiumf Sahelle, versus : 

Qtiales nee Dydimi sciunt puelUe, 

Nee molles Elephantidos libelli. 

Sunt illic Veneris nov€K figure : 

QuaUs, etc, Lib. acii. Ep. 43. 

Ovid mentions the same kind of pictures that 
found a place even in Augustus's cabinet. 

Scilicet in domibus vestris, at prisca virorum 

Artifici fulgent corpora picta manu ; 
Sic qua concuhitus varios Venerisquefiguras 

Erprimat, est aliquo parva tabella loco, 

De Trist. lib. 2. 

There are several of the sigilla, or seals^ Sueto- 
nius speaks of^ to be met with in collections of 
ancient intaglios. 

But I think what puts it beyond all doubt that 
these coins were rather made by the emperor s order 
than as a satire on him, is because they are now 
found in the very place that was the scene of these 
his unnatural lusts : 



■Quem rupes Caprearum tetra latebit 



Incesto possessa seni? Ol. de 4 Cons. Hon; 



THE ISLE OF CAPREA. 125 

Who has not heard of Caprea's guilty shore. 
Polluted by the rank old emperor. 



FROM NAPLES TO ROME, BY SEA. 

I TOOK a felucca at Naples to carry me to Rome^ 
that I might not be forced to run over the same 
sights a second time^ and might have an opportunity 
of seeing many things in a road which our voyage 
writers have not so particularly described. As m 
my journey from Rome to Naples I had Horace for 
my guide^ so I had the pleasure of seeing my voyage 
from Naples to Rome described by Virgil. It is^ 
indeed^ much easier to trace out the way ^neas 
took; than that of Horace^ because Virgil has marked 
it out by capeS; islands^ and other parts of nature, 
which are not so subject to chai^ or decay as are 
towns, cities, and the works of art. Mount Pau- 
silypo makes a beautiful prospect to those who pass 
by it : at a small distance from it lies the httle 
island of Nisida, adorned with a great variety of 
plantations, rising one above another in so beautiful 
an. order, that the whole island looks like a large 
terrace-garden. It has two little ports, and is not 
at present troubled with any of those noxious steams 
I that Lucan mentions : 

-Tali ^iramine Nesis 



Emittit Stygium nebulo$i$ aera saxis. Lib. 6. 

Nesis' high rocks such Stygian air produce. 
And the blue breathing pestilence difiiise. 

From Nisida we rowed to cape Miseno. The ex- 
tremity of this cape has a long cleft in it, which was 
enlarged and cut into shape by Agrippa, who made 
tliis the great port for the Roman fleet that served 

m3 



126 REMARKS ON ITALY, 

in the MediteFTanean ; as tbat of RaTemia held the 
ships designed for the Adriatic and Archipelago. 
The highest end of this promontory rises in the 
fashion of a sepulchre or monument to those that 
surrey it from the land, which perhaps might occa- 
sion Virgil's burying Misenus under it. I have 
seen a grave Italian author, who has written a very 
Isrge book on the Campania Felice, that from 
Vila's description of tlus mountain concludes it 
was called Aerius before Misenus had given it a 
new name: 

At piw Mntai ingtnti moU upuUhmtn 
ImpmiX, maqut arma viro, rtmumqiu, tuban^tit, 
Montt tui Atrio, jui nunc MiwnuJ ai ilia 
Dicitur, mUmamqut tmet per tcniJa rumen, 

^N. Ub. 6. 

There are still to be seen a few ruins of old Mjse- . 
num, but the most considerable antiquity of the 
place is s set of galleries that are hewn into the 
rock, and are mu(£ more spacious than the Piscina 
Mirabilia. Some will have them to have been a 
reservoir of water, but others, more probably, sup- 
pose them to have been Nero's baths. I lay Uie first 
night on the isle of Procita, which is pretty well 
cultivated, and contains about four thousand in- 
habitants, who are all vassals to the marquis de 

The next morning I went to see the isle of Ischia, 
that stands farther out into the sea. The ancient 
poets call it Inarime, and lay Typhssus under it, by 
reason of its eruptions of fire. There has been no 
eruption for near these three hundred years. The 
last was very terrible, and destroyed a whole ci^. 
At present there are scarce any marks left of a sub- 
terraneous fire, tor the earth is cold, and overrun. 



FROM NAPLES TO ROME, BY SEA. 127 

with grass and shrubs, where the rocks will suffer it. 
There are, indeed, several little cracks in it, through 
which there issues a constant smoke, but it is prcm- 
able this arises from the warm springs that feed the 
many baths with which this island is plentifully 
stocked. I observed, about one of these breathing 
passages, a spot of myrtles that flourish within the 
steam of these vapours, and have a continual mois- 
ture hanging upon them. On the south of Ischia 
lies a round lake of about three quarters of a mile 
diameter, separate from the sea by a narrow tract of 
land. It was formerly a Roman port. On the north 
end of the island stands the town and castle, on an 
exceeding high rock, divided from the body of the 
island, and inaccessible to an enemy on all sides. 
This island is larger, but much more rocky and 
barren, than Prodta. Virgil makes them both shake 
at the fall of part of the mole of Bajse, that stood at 
a few miles' distance from tliem : 

Qualis in Euboico Bajarum litUtre qtumdam 
Saxea pila cadit, magnU qttam molihus ante 
Constructam jaciunt pelago : $ic ilia ruinam 
Prona trahit, penitusqw vadis illisa recumbit ; 
Miscent te maria et nigra attolluntur arena : 
Turn ionitu Proehyta alta tremit, durumque cMU 
' Inarime, Jovis imperiit impotta Typfioeo, ^n. 9« 

Not with less ruin than the Bajan mole 

(Raised on the seas the surges to control) 

At once comes tumbling down the rocky wall. 

Prone to the deep the stones disjointed fall 

Off the vast pile ; the scattered ocean flies ; 

Black sands, discolour'd froth, and mingrd mud arise. 

The frighted billows roll, and seek the shores : 

Trembles high Piochyta, and Ischia roars : 

Typhsus roars beneath, by Jove*s command, 

Astonish'd at the flaw that shakes the land, 



128 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

Soon shifts his weary side, and scarce awake. 
With wonder feels the weight press lighter on his back. 

Dryden. 

I do not see why Virgil, in this noble cotnpBrison^ 
has given the epithet of (dta to Procita^ for it is not 
only no hieh isLeoid in itself^ but is much lower than 
Iscnia, and all the points of land that lie within its 
neighbourhood. I should think alta was joined ad- 
verbially with tremit, did Virgil make use of so 
equivocal a syntax. I cannot forbear inserting in 
this place the lame imitation Silius Italicus has made 
of the foregoing passage. 

Haud aliter, ttructo Tyrrkena ad littora saxo, 

Pugnaturafretis subter cacisque proc'ellis 

Pila, immane tonam, impingitur ardua ponto ; 

Immugit Nereus, divisaque C4erula pultu 

Jllisum accipiunt irata sub iequora montem. Lib. 4. 

So a vast fragment of the Bajan mole. 
That fix'd amid the Tyrrhene waters, braves 
The beating tempests and insulting waves. 
Thrown from its oasis with a dreaoful sound. 
Dashes the broken billows all around. 
And with resistless force the surface cleaves. 
That in its angry waves the falling rock receives. 

The next mornings going to Cumffi through a very 
pleasant path^ by the Mare Mortuum and the £Iy- 
sian fields, we saw in our way a ereat many ruins 
of sepulchres, and other ancient emfices. Cumie is 
at present utterly destitute of inhabitants, so much 
is it changed since Lucan's time, if the poem to Piso 
be his: 



AddaliA qv/e condidit Alite muros 



Eubincatn referensfiecunda Neapolis urbem. 

Where the fam'd walls of fruitful Naples lie. 
That may for multitudes with Cum» vie. 



FROM NAPLES TO ROME, BY SEA. 129 

They show here the remains of Apollo's temple, 
which all the writers of the antiouities of this pkce 
suppose to have been the same Virgil describes in 
his sixth JBneid, as built by Dsedalus, and that the 
very story which Virgil there mentions, was actually 
engraven on the front of it. 

Redditus his pritnum terris tibi Phcsbe sacravit 
Remigium alarumj posuitque immania tetnpla, 
Inforibus letum Androgei : turn pendere pctnas 
Cecropida jussi, miserum ! Septena quotannis 
Corpora natorum : stat ductis sortibus uma. 
Contra elata mart respondet Gnossia tellus, etc, ^n. 6. 

To the Cumean coast at length he came. 
And, here alighting, built his costly frame 
Inscrib'd to Phoebus, here he hung on high 
The steerage of his wings that cut the sky ; 
Then o'er the lofty gate his art embossed 
Androgeo's death, and off'rings to his ghost, 
Sev'n youths from Athens yearly sent to meet 
The fate appointed by revengefiil Crete ; 
And next to those the dreadful urn was plac'd. 
In which the destin'd names by lots were cast. 

Drtden. 

Among other subterraneous works there is the 
beginning of a passage, which is stopped up within 
less than a hundred yards of the entrance, by the 
earth that is fallen into it. They suppose it to have 
been the other mouth of the Sibyls grotto. It lies, 
indeed, in the same line with the Entrance near the 
Avernus, is faced alike with the opus reticulatum, 
and has still the marks of chambers that have been 
cut into the sides of it. Among the many fables 
and conjectures which have been made on this 
grotto, I think it is highly probable that it was once 
inhabited by such as, perhaps, thought it a better 
shelter against the sun than any other kind of build-i> 



130 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

ing> or at least that it was made with smaller trouhle 
and expense. As for the Mosaic and other works 
that may he found in it^ they may very well have 
been added in later ages, according as they thought 
fit to put the place to different uses. The story of 
the Cimmerians is indeed clogged with improbabili- 
ties, as Strabo relates it ; but it is very likely there 
was in it some foundation of truth. Homer's de- 
scription of the Cimmerians, whom he places in these 
parts, answers very well to the inhabitants of such a 
long dark cavern : 

The gloomy race, in subterraneous cells, 

Among surrounding shades and darkness dwells ; 

Hid in th' unwholesome covert of the nisht. 

They shun th' approaches of the cheerful light : 

The sun ne'er visits their obscure retreats. 

Nor when he runs his course, nor when he sets. 

Unhappy mortals ! — — ^^— Odyss. lib, 10. 

Tu quoque littoribus nottris, JEneia nutrix, 

jEtemam inoriensfamam, Cajeta, dedisti: 

Et nunc servat konot tedem tuus, oaaque nomen 

HwptriA in magnd, si qua est ea glories signat» i£N. 7. 

And thott« O matron, of immortal fame, 
Here dyin?, to the shore hast left thy name : 
Cajeta still the place is call'd from thee, 
The nurse of ereat iEneas' infancy. 
Here rest thy oones in rich Hesperia's plains ; 
Thy name ( tis all a ghost can have) remains. 

Dryden. 

I saw at Cajeta the rock of marble, said to be cleft 
by an earthquake at our Saviour's death. There is 
written over the chapel door, that leads into the 
crack, the words of the evangelist : Ecce terrce^motus 
Jactus est magnus, I believe every one who sees 
this vast rent in so high a rock, and observes how 
exactly the convex parts of one side tally with the 



i 



TROM NAPLES TO ROME, BY SEA. 131 

concave of the other^ must be satisfied that it was 
the effect of an earthquake^ though I question not 
but it either happened lon^ before the time of the 
Latin writers, or in the darker ages since, for other- 
wise I cannot but think they would have taken 
notice of its original. The port, town, castle, and 
antiquities of this place have been often described. 

We touched next at Monte Circeio, which Homer 
calls Insula .^a, whether it be that it was formerly 
an island, or that the Greek sailors of his time 
thought it so. It is certain they might easily have 
been deceived by its appearance, as being a very 
high mountain joined to the mainland by a narrow 
tract of earth, that is many miles in length, and 
almost of a level with the surface of the water. The 
end of this promontory is very rocky, and mightily 
exposed to the winds and waves> which, perhaps, 
gave the first rise to the bowlings of wolves, and the 
roarings of lions, that used to be heard thence. 
This I had a very lively idea of, beins forced to lie 
undeif it a whole night. Virgil's description of 
.^neas passing by this coast, can never be enough 
admired. It is worth while to observe how, to 
heighten the horror of the description, he has pre- 
pared the reader^s mind, by the solemnity of Cajeta's 
funeral, and the dead stillness of the night : 

At pius exsequiia Mneoi rite tolutis, 
Asgere composito tumuli, postquam alta quiSrunt 
jSquora, tendit iter velis, portumque relinquit, 
Adspirant aura in noctem, nee Candida curtus 
Luna negat : spkndet tremulo sub lumine pontus. 
Proxima CirccMi raduntur littora terra : 
Dives inaccessos ubi solisfilia lucos 
AssidiM resonat cantu, tectisqv£ superbis 
Urit odoratam noctuma in lumina cedrum, 
Arguto tienv£s percurrens peetine telas : 



132 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

Hinc exaudiri gemitus ineque leonum 
Viticla reeusantum, et serd tuh nocte rudentum : 
Sittigeriqtie sues, atque in pntsepibui urn 
Sdevire, aefomut magnorum ululare luporum : 
Q^os hominum ex facie dea sava potentUms herbis 
Jnduerat Circe in vultus ac terga ferarum, 
QtuB ne momtra fit patertntur taiia Troes 
Delati in partus, neu littora dira tubirent : 
Keptunus ventis implevit vela secundis, 
Atque, fugam dedit, et pntter vadafervida vexit, 

Mv, lib. 7. 

Now, when the prince her fun'ral rites had paid, 

He ploughed the Tyrrhene seas with sails displayed. 

From land a gentle breeze arose by night. 

Serenely shone the stars, the moon was bright. 

And the sea trembled with her silver light. 

J^ow near the shelves of Circe's shores they run, 

^Circe the rich, the daughter of the sun^ 

A dang'rous coast : the goddess wastes ner days 

In joyous songs, the rocks resound her lays : 

In spinning, or the loom, she spends har night. 

And cedar brands supply her father's light. 

From hence were hesinl (rebellowing to the main) 

The roars of lions that refuse the chain. 

The grunts of bristled boars and groans of bears. 

And herds of howling wolves that stun the sailor's ears. 

These from their caverns, at the close of night. 

Fill the sad isle with horror and afinght. 

Darkling they mourn their fate, whom Circe's pow'r 

(That watch d the moon, and planetary hour). 

With words and wicked herbs, from human kind 

Had alter'd, and in brutal shapes confin'd. 

Which monsters, lest the Trojan's pious host 

Should bear, or touch upon th' inchanted coast ; 

ProDitious Neptune steer'd their course by night 

Witn rising gales, that sped their happy flight. 

Dryden. 

Virffil calls this promontory MesB Insula Circes in 
the third iBneid ; but it is the hero> and not the 
poet^ that speaks. It may> however^ be looked upon 



J 



FROM NAPLES TO ROME, BY SEA. 183 

as an intimation, that he himself thought it an 
island in JEneas's time. As for the thick woods, 
which not only Virgil, but Homer mentions, in the 
beautiful description that Plutarch and Longinus 
have taken notice of, they are most of them grubbed 
up since the promontory has been cultivated and in- 
habited, though there are still many spots of it 
which show the natural inclination of the soil leans 
that way. 

The next place we touched upon was Nettuno, 
where we found nothing remarkable besides the ex- 
treme poverty and laziness of the inhabitants. At 
two miles' distance from it lie the ruins of Antium, 
that are spread over a great circuit of land. There 
are still left the foundations of several buildings, and, 
what are always the last parts that perish in a ruin, 
many subterraneous grottoes and passages of a great 
length. The foundations of Neros port are still to 
be seen. It was altogether artificial, and composed 
of huge moles running round it, in a kind of circu- 
lar figure, except where the ships were to enter, and 
had about three quarters of a mile in its shortest 
diameter. Though the making of this port must 
have cost prodigious sums of money, we find no 
medal of it ; and yet the same eoiperor has a medal 
struck in his own name for the port of Ostia, which 
in reality was a work of his predecessor Claudius. 
The last pope was at considerable charges to make a 
little kind of harbour in this place, and to convey 
fresh water to it, which was one of the artifices of 
the grand duke, to divert his holiness from his pro- 
ject of making Civita-vecchia a free port. There 
lies between Aintium and Nettuno a cardinal's villa, 
which is one of the pleasantest for walks, fountains, 
shades, and prospects, that I ever saw. 

VOL. IV. N 



134 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

Antium was fonnerly famous for the temple of 
Fortune that stood in it. All agree there were two 
Fortunes worshipped here^ which Suetonius calls the 
Fortune Antiates> and Martial the Sorores Antii. 
Some are of opinion, that by these two goddesses 
were meant the two Nemeses, one of which re^ 
warded good men, as the other punished the wicked. 
Fabretti and others are apt to believe, that by the 
two Fortunes were only meant in general the god- 
dess who sent prosperity, or she who sent afflictions 
to mankind, and produce in their behalf an ancient 
monument found in this very place, and superscribed 
Fortune Felici, which, indeed, may favour one 
opinion as well as the other, and shows, at least, 
they are not mistaken in the general sense of their 
division. I do not know whether any body has 
taken notice, that this double function of the god- 
dess gives a considerable light and beauty to the ode 
which Horace has addressed to her. The whole 
poem is a prayer to Fortune, that she would prosper 
Ciesar's aims, and confound his enemies, so that 
each of the goddesses has her task assigned in the 
poet's prayer ; and we may observe the invocation is 
dividea between the two deities, the first line re- 
lating indifferently to either. That which I have 
marked speaks to the goddess of prosperity, or, if 
you please, to the Nemesis of the good, and the 
other to the goddess of adversity, or to the Nemesis 
of the wickea : 



O diva, gratum qiut regi^ Antium, 

Pnesens vel imo tollere de gradu 

Mortale corpus, vel mperbos 

Verterefuneribut triumphos ! etc. 

Od. 35. lib. i. 



FROM ROME TO NAPLES, BY SEA. 135 

Great goddess, Antium's guardian power. 
Whose force is strong, and quick to raise 
The lowest to the highest place ; 

Or with a wond*rou8 fall 

To bring the haughty Unver, 
And turn proud triumphs to a funeral, etc. Crcbcr. 

. If we take the first interpretation of the two For- 
tunes for the double Nemesis^ the compliment to 
Csesar is the greater^ and the fifth stanza clearer 
than the commentators usually make it, for the clavi 
trabales, cunei, uncus, liquiaumque plumbum, were 
actually used in the punishment of criminals. 

Our next stage brought us to the mouth of the 
Tiber^ into which we entered with some danger, the 
sea being generally very rough in these parts, where 
the river rushes into it. The season of the year, the 
muddiness of the stream, with the many green trees 
hanging over it, put me in mind of the delightful 
image that Virgil has given us when ^Eneas took 
the first view of it : 

Atque hie ^neas ingentem ex aquore lucum 

Prospicit, Hunc inter Jluvio Tiberinus amoino, 

Vorticibut rapidis, et multdjlavut arend 

In mare prorumpit. Varia circumque supraque 

Assu£tie ripis volucres etjluminis alveo 

JEthera mulcebant cantu, lucoque volabant, 

Flectere iter iociis terraque advertere proras 

Jmperat, et Uttut Jluvio succedit opaco, ^En. lib. 7. 

The Trojan from the main beheld a wood. 
Which thick with shades, and a brown horror stood : 
Betwixt the trees the Tiber took his course. 
With whirlpools dimpled, and with downward force 
That drove the sand along, he took his way. 
And roU'd his yellow billows to the sea ; 
About him, and above, and round the wood. 
The birds that haunt the borders of his flood. 



136 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

That bath'd within, or bask'd upon his side. 
To tuneful songs their narrow throats applied. 
The captain gives command, the joyful train 
Glide tnrough the gloomy shade, and leave the main. 

Drydek. 

It is impossible to learn from the ruins of the port 
of Ostia^ what its figure was when it stood whole 
and entire. I shall therefore set down the medal 
that I have before mentioned^ which represents it as 
it was formerly : 

It is worth while to compare Juvenal's descrip- 
tion of this port with the ngure it makes on the 
coin: 

Tandem intrat positas inclusa per (tquora moles, 
Tyrrhenamque Pharon, porrectaque brachia rtirsum 
Qm« pelago oceurrunt medio, l<mgeque relinquunt 
Italiam, Nim sic igitur mir<id>ere partus, 
Quotnatura dedit. Juv. Sat. 12. 

At last within the mighty mole she gets. 
Our Tyrrhene Pharos, that the mid-sea meets 
With Its embrace, and leaves the land behind ; 
A work so wond'rous nature ne'er designed. 

Dryden's Juv. 

The seas may very properly be said to be inclosed 
{inclusa) between the two semicircular moles that 
almost surround them. The Colossus^ with some- 
thing like a lighted torch in its hand^ is probably 
the Pharos in tibe second line. The two moles, that 
we must suppose are joined to the land behind the 
Pharos^ are very poetically described by the 



■Porreetaque brachia rursum 



Qu^ pelago oceurrunt medio, longeque relinquunt 
Italiam, 

as they > retire from one another in the compass .they 
make> until their two ends almost meet a second 



mOM ROME TO NAPLES, BY SEA. ISf 

time in the midst of tlie waters^ where the figure of 
Neptune sits. The poet's reflection on the haven is 
very just^ since there are few natural ports better 
land-locked^ and closed on all sides^ than this seems 
to have been. The figure of Neptune has a rudder 
by him^ to mark the convenience of the harbour for 
navigation^ as he is represented himself at the 
entrance of it^ to show it stood in the sea. The 
dolphin distinguishes him from a river god, and 
figures out his dominion over the seas. He holds 
the same fish in his hand on other medals. What it 
means we may learn from the Greek epigram on the 
figure of a Cupid that had a dolphin in one hand and 
a flower in the other : 

OvSk fjtarrjv irdKafiatQ icarcxei ZiKfiva Kcd dv9oc, 
Tij fuv ydp yaiav r^^e OaKaatrav 2%a. 

A proper emblem graces either hand. 

In one he holds the sea, in one the land* • 

Half a day more brought us to Rome, through a 
road that is commonly visited by travellers. 

ROME. 

It is generally observed, that modern Rome stands 
higher than the ancient ; some have computed 
it about fourteen or fifteen feet, taking one place 
with another. The reason given for it is, that the 
present city stands upon the ruins of the former; 
and^ indeed, I have often observed, that where any 
considerable pile of building stood anciently, one 
still finds a rising ground, or a little kind of hill, 
which was doubtless made up out of the fraCTients 
and rubbish of the ruined edifice. But besides this 
particular cause, we may assign another that has 
very much contributed to the raising the situation 

n3 



138 REMARKS ON ITALY, 

of MTeral parts of Rome ; it being certain tlie great 
quantities of earth that have been washed off from 
tile hills by the violence of showers, have had 
no small share in it. This any one may be sensible 
of, who observes how fat several buildings that stand 
near the roots of mountains, are sunk deeper in the 
earth than those that have been on the tops of hills, 
or in open plains ; for which reason the present face 
of Rome is much more even and level than it was 
formerly ; the same cause that has raised the lower 
crounds having contributed to sink those that were 

There are in Rome two sets of antiquities, the 
Christian and the heathen. The former, though of a 
fresher date, are so embroiled with fable and'lt^nd, 
that one receives but little satisfaction from search- 
ing into them. The other give a great deal of 
pleasure to such as have met with them before in 
ancient authors; for a man who is in Rome caa 
scarce see an object that does not call to mind a 
piece of a Latin poet or historian. Among the 
remains of old Rome, the grandeur of the common- 
wealth shows itself chiefly m works that were either 
necessary or convenient, such as temples, highways, 
aqueducts, walls, and bridges of the city. On the 
contrary, the magnificence of Rome under the em- 
perors is seen principally in such works as were 
rather for ostentation or luxury, than any real use- 
fulness or necessity, as in baths, amphitheatres, 
circuses, obelisks, triumphal pillars, arches, and 
mausoleums ; for what they added to the aqueducts 
was rather to supply their baths and naumachtas, 
and to embellish tne city with fountains, than out of 
any real necessity there was for them. Theee. 
several remains have been so copiously described by 



ROME. 139 

abundance of trayellers, and other writers^ par- 
ticularly by those concerned in the learned collection 
9f Grrsevius^ that it is very difficult to make any' new 
discoveries on so beaten a subject. There is, how- 
ever^ so much to be observed in so spacious a field of 
antiquities^ that it is almost impossible to survey 
them without taking uew hints, and raising different 
reflections^ according as a man's natural turn of 
thoughts, or the course of his studies^ direct him. 

No part of the antiquities of Rome pleased me so 
much as the ancient statues, of which there is still 
an incredible variety. The workmanship is often 
the most exquisite of anything in its kind. A man 
would wonder how it were possible for so much life 
to enter into marble, as may be discovered in some 
of the best of them : and even in the meanest, one 
has the satisfaction of seeing the ^Eioes, postures^ 
airs, and dress of those that have lived so many ages 
before us. There is a strange resemblance between 
the figures of the several heathen deities, and the 
descriptions that the Latin poets have given us of 
them ; but as the first may be looked upon as the 
ancienter of the two, I question not but the Roman 
poets were the copiers of the Greek statuaries. 
Though on other occasions we often find the statu- 
aries took their subjects from the poets. The Lao- 
coon is too known an instance among many others 
that are to be met with at Rome. In the Villa 
Aldabrandina are the figures of an old and young 
man, engaged t(^ther at the caestus^ who are pro- 
bably the Dares and Entellus of Virgil ; where, by 
the way, one may observe the make of the ancient 
csestus, that it only consisted of so many large 
thongs about the hand, without anything like a 



140 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

piece of lead at the end of them, ae some nn'ters 

of antiqnitiea have falsely imagined. 

I question not but many passages in the old poets 
hint at several parts of sculpture, that were in vogae 
in the author's time, though they are now never 
thought of, and that therefore such passages lose 
much of their beauty in the eye of a modem reader, 
who does not look upon them in the same light with 
the author's contemporaries. I shall only mention 
two or three out of Juvenal, that his commentators 
have not taken notice of. The first runs thus : 

Mo(ta pndiciti* vtterii tmtigiafortiin, 

Aut aJifua Rstilnint, Ft luh Jmt, ud Jont niiuliin 

Batiatt. Sat. 6, 



I appeal to any reader, if the humour here would 
not appear much more natural and nnfijrced to a 
people that saw eveij day some or other statue of 
this god with a thick bushy beard, as there are still 
many of them extant at Rome, than it can to ua 
who have no such idea of him ; especially if we con- 
sidet there was in the same city a temple dedicated 
to the young Jupiter, called Templtim Veejovis, 
where, in all probability, there stood the particular 
statue of a Jupiter Imberbu '. Juvenal, in another 
place, makes his flatterer compare the nedc of <me 
that is but feebly built, to that of Hercules holding 
up AnUeos from the euth : 

um intialujt eotluin c 

i, Anttetm proeul a ittlure te 

' Vid. Ot. de Fulii, lib. 3. eel. 71. 



ROME. 141 

His long crane neck and narrow shoulders praise ; 

You'd think they were describing Hercules 

Lifting Antsus. Dbyden. 

What a strained unnatural similitude must this 
seem to a modern reader^ but how full of humour^ if 
we suppose it alludes to any celebrated statues of 
these two champions^ that stood perhaps in some 
public place or highway near Rome? And what 
makes it more than probable there were such statues^ 
we meet with the figures, which Juvenal here de- 
scribes, on antique intaglios and medals. Nay, 
Propertius has taken notice of the very statues : 

Lv^tantum in puhere signa 



Herculis Antaique, Lib. iii. car. 1. 

Antsus here and stem Alcides strive, 
And both the grappling statues seem to live. 

J cannot forbear observing here, that the turn of 
the neck and arms is often commended in the Latin 
poets among the beauties of a man, as in Horace we 
find both put together, in that beautiful description 
of jealousy : 

Dum tu Lydia Telephi 

Cervicem roseam, et cerea Telephi 
Laudas brachia, va: meum 

Fervent difficili bile tumetjecur; 
Tunc nee mens mihi, nee color 

Certd sede manent : humor et in genas 
Furtim labituVf arguens 

Qudm lentis penitus wMcerer ignibus. 

While Telephu8*s youthful charms, 
His rosy neck, and winding arms, 
With endless rapture you recite. 
And in the tender name delight ; 
My heart, enrag'd by jealous heats. 
With numberless resentments beats ; 



142 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

Fpom mj pale cheeks the colour flies. 
And all the man within me dies; 
Bj fits my swelling grief appears 
In rising sighs, and tailing tears. 
That show too well the warm desires. 
The silent, slow, consuming fires. 
Which on my inmost vitals prey. 
And melt my Teiy soul away* 

This we should be at a loss to account for, did we 
not observe in the old Roman statues, that these two 
parts were always bare, and exposed to view as much 
as our hands and face are at present. I cannot leave 
Juvenal without taking notice that his 

VentUat intivum digitistudantibus aurtan 

Xe€ tufferre ^ueat majoris pondera genang. Sat. 1. 

Charg*d with light sommer rings his fingers sweat. 
Unable to support a gem of weight. Dryden. 

was not andentlv so great an hyperbole as it is now, 
for I have seen old Roman rings so very thick about, 
and with such large stones in them, that it is no 
wonder a fop should reckon them a little cumber- 
some in the summer season of so hot a climate. 

It is certain that satire delights in such allusions 
and instances as are extremely natural and fetmiliar : 
when therefore we see anything in an old satirist 
that looks forced and pedantic, we ought to consider 
how it appeared in the time the poet writ^ and 
whether or no there might not be some particular 
circumstances to recommend it to the readers of his 
own age, which we are now deprived of. One of 
the finest ancient statues in Rome is a Meleager 
with a spear in his hand, and the head of a wild 
boar on one side of him. It is of Parian marble, 
and as yellow as ivory. One meets with many other 
figures of Meleager in the ancient basso relievos. 



ROME. 143 

and on the sides of the sarcophagi^ or funeral monu- 
ments. Perhaps it was the arms or device of the 
old Roman hunters ; which conjecture I have found 
confirmed in a passage of Manilius> that lets us 
know the pagan hunters had Meleager for their 

fatron^ as the Christians have their St. Hubert. 
le speaks of the constellation which makes a good 
sportsman : 



Quibtu aspirantibus orti 



Te Meleagre colunt, Manzl. lib. 1. 

I question not hut this sets a verse in the fifth 
satire of Juvenal in a much better light than if we 
suppose that the poet aims only at ^e old story of 
Meleager^ without consideringit as so very common 
and fJEmiiliar a one among the Romans : 

Flavi dignusferro Mekagri 

Spumat aper^ Juv. Sat, 5. 

A boar entire, and worthy of the sword 

Of Meleager, smokes upon the board* Mr. Bowles. 

In the beginning of the ninth satire^ Juvenal asks 
his friend why he looks like Marsya when he was 
overcome ? 

Scire velitn quare toties mihi Navole tristis 
Oceurrisfronte obdiustd, seu Marsya victut 7 

Tell me, while saunt'rin^ thus from place to place, 
I meet ihee, Nevolus, with a clouded facel 

Dbtd. Juv, 

Some of the commentators tell us that Marsya 
was a lawyer who had lost his cause ; others say that 
this passage alludes to the story of the satyr Mar- 
syas^ who contended with Apollo ; which I think is 
inore humorous than the other^ if we consider there 



144 REMARKS ON ITALY* 

was a famous statue of Apollo flaying Marsya in tbe 
midst of the Roman forum^ as there are still several 
ancient statues of Rome on the same subject. 

There is a passage in the sixth satire of Juvenal 
that I could never tell what to make of^ till I had 
got the interpretation of it from one of Bellorio s 
ancient basso relievos : 

« 

Magnorum art\fieum frangehat pocula miles 
Ut phaleris gauderet equtu : calataque cassis 
RomuU^K simulachraferiB mansuescerejussde 
Imperii fato,geminos sub rupe Quirinos, 
Ae nudam effigiem clypeofulgentis, et hastdf 
Pendentisqxie dei, perituro ostend^ret hosti. 

Juv. Sat. 11. 

Or else a helmet for himself he made. 
Where various warlike figures were inlaid : 
The Roman wolf suckling the twins was there. 
And Mars himself, arm'd with his shield and spear, 
Hov'ring above his crest, did dreadful show. 
As threat'ning death to each resisting foe. 

Dbyd. Juv. 

Juvenal here describes the simplicity of the old 
Roman soldiers^ and the figures that were generally 
engraven on their helmets. The first of uiem was 
the wolf giving suck to Romulus and Remus : the 
second^ which is comprehended in the last two verses> 
is not so intelligible. Some of the commentators tell 
us> that the^ god here mentioned is Mars^ that he 
comes to see his two sons sucking the wolf^ and that 
the old sculptors generally drew their figures naked^ 
that they might have the advantage of representing 
the different swelling of the muscles^ and the turns 
of the body. But they are extremely at a loss to 
know what is meant by the word pendentis; some 
fancy it expresses only the great embossment of the 



r 



ROME. 145 

figure^ others believe it hung off the helmet in alto 
relievo^ as in the foregoing translation. Lubin sup« 
poses that the god Mars was engraven on the shield^ 
and that he is said to be hanging because the shield 
which bore him hung on the left shoulder. One of 
the old interpreters is of opinion^ that by hanging is 
only meant a posture of bending forward to strike 
the enemy. Another will have it^ that whatever is 
placed on the head may be said to hang, as we call 
hanging gardens^ such as are planted on the top of 
the house. Several learned men, who like none of 
these explications^ believe there has been a fault in 
the transcriber, and that pendentis ought to be per" 
dentis; but they quote no manuscript in favour of 
their conjecture. The true meaning of the words is 
certainly as follows. The Roman soldiers, who were 
not a little proud of their founder, and the military 
genius of their republic, used to bear on their hel- 
mets the first history of Romulus^ who was begot by 
the god of war^ and suckled by a wolf. The figure 
of the god was made as if descending upon the 
^estess Ilia, or, as others call her, Khea Silvia. 
The occasion required his body should be naked : 

Turn quoque inermis eras, cum te Romana sacerdos 
Cepit, ut kuic urbi semina digna dares* 

Ov. de Fast. lib. 3. 

Then too, our mighty sire, thou stood'st disann'd. 
When thy rapt soul the lovely priestess chaim'd, 
That Rome's high founder bor e 

Though on other occasions he is drawn, as Horace 
has described him, tunicd cinctum adamantind. 
The sculptor, however, to distinguish him from the 
rest of the gods, gave him what the medalists call 
his proper attributes^ a spear in one hand^ and a 

VOLr. IV. o 



146 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

shield in the odwr. As he was lepresented descend- 
ing, his figure appeared suspended in the air over 
the veilal Tiigin, in which sense the word pendentis 
is extremely proper and poetical. Besides the an- 
tique basso relievo, that made me first think of this 
interpretation, I have since met with the same 
figures on the rererses of a couple of ancient coins, 
winsik were stamped in the reign of Antoninus Pius, 
as a compliment to that emperor, whom, for his ex- 
cellent goTemment and conauct of the city of Rome, 
the senate regarded as a second kind of founder : 

Ilia Vestalis (quid enim vetat inde tnoveri) 

Sacra Unaturas mane pet^at aquas: 
Fiiui ruedit kumU, wntatque aeeepit aperto 

Peetore ; tmrbata* mtituiique eomat* 
Dum iedet ; mnfrrocc uUieet wUueretfue carwrm 

Feeerunt somnos, et Uv« mttrmitr aquM, 
Blanda quits victisfurtUn Si^frtpit ocellis, 

Et cadit a munto languida facta manus» 
Man vidtt hone, visamquc eupit, pMiturque cupitam : 

Et sua divimifureafeftUit ope, 
Scmnus obit : jaeet ilia gravis. Jam sdlieet intra 

Viscera, Ramaiut eovMitor urbis, eras, 

Ov. de Fast. lib. 3. 

As the fair vestal to the fountain came, 

(iiet none be startled at a vestal's name), 

Tir'd with the walk, she laid her down to rest, 

And to the winds expos'd her glowing breast 

To take the fireshness of the morning air, 

And gather'd in a knot her flowing hair : 

While thus she rested on her arm reclin'd. 

The hoary willows waving with the wind. 

And feather'd choirs that warbled in the shade. 

And purling streams that through the meadow strayed, 

In drowsy murmurs lull*d the ^ntle maid. 

The god of war beheld the viigm lie. 

The god beheld her with a lover's eye. 

And by so tempting an occasion press'd. 

The beauteous maid, whom he beheld, possessed : 



ROME. 147 

Conceiving as she slept, her fruitful womb 
Sweird with the founder of immortal Rome. 

I cannot quit this head without taking notice of a 
line in Seneca the tragedian : 



Primus emergit solo 



Dextrdferocem comibiLS premens taurum 

Zetus, Sen. (£dip. act. 3. 

First Zetus rises through the ground, 



Bending the bull's tough neck with pain, 
That tosses back his horns in vain. 

I cannot doubt but the poet had here in view the 
posture of Zetus in the famous group of figures, 
which represents the two brothers binding Dirce to 
the horns of a mad bull. 

I could not forbear taking particular notice of the 
several musical instruments that are to be seen in 
the hands of the Apollos, muses, fauns> satyrs, bac- 
chanals, and shepherds, which might certainly give 
a great light to the dispute for preference between 
the ancient and modern music. It would, perhaps, 
be no impertinent design to take off all their models 
in wood, which might not only give us some notion of 
the ancient music, but help us to pleasanter instru- 
ments than are now in use. By the appearance 
they make in marble, there is not one string-instru- 
ment that seems comparable to our violins, for they 
are all played on either by the bare fingers or the 
plectrum, so that they were incapable of adding any 
length to their notes, or of varying them bv those 
insensible swellings, and wearings away of sound 
upon the same string, which give so wonderful a 
sweetness to our moaem music. Besides that, the 
string-instruments must have had very low and 
feeble voices, as may be guessed from the small pro- 



148 REMARKS ON ITALY, 

pnrtion of wood about them, which conld not contain 
air enough to render the strokes, in any considerable 
meAsare, ftill and aonorona. There is a great deal 
of difierence in the make, not only of the several 
lands of instruments, but even among those of the 
same name. The sjringa, for examj^e, has some- 
times four, and sometimes more pipes, as high as the 
twelve. The same variety of strings may be ob- 
served on their harps, and of stops on their tibia;, 
which shows the little foundation that such writers 
have gone upon, who, from a verse perhaps in Vir- 
gil's Ecli^uea, or a short passage in a classic author, 
have been so very nice in determining the precise 
shape of the ancient musical instruments, with the 
exact number of their pipes, strings, and stops. It 
is, indeed, the nsual fault of the writers of antiqui- 
ties, to straiten and confine themselves to particular 
models. They are for malting a kind of stamp on 
everything of the same name ; and if they find any- 
thing like an old description of the subject they treat 
on, they take care to regulate it on all occasions, ac- 
cording to the figure it makes in such a single pas- 
sage : as the learned German author, quoted by 
monsieur Bardelot, who had probably never seen 
anything of a household god, more than a canopus, 
affirms roundly, that all the ancient lares were made 
in the fashion of a jug-bottle. In short, the antiqua- 
ries have been guilty of the same fault as the system 
writers, who are for cramping their subjects into as 
narrow a space as they can, and for reducing the 
whole extent of a science into a few general maxims. 
This a man has occasion of observing more than 
once, in the several fragments of antiquity that are 
still to be seen in Rome. How many dresses are 
there for each particular deity? What a variety of 



ROME. 149 

shapes in the ancient ums^ lamps^ lachrym^ry ves- 
sels^ priapuses^ household gods^ which have some of 
tkem been represented under such a particular form^ 
as any one of them has been described within an 
ancient author^ and would probably be all so^ were 
they not still to be seen in their own vindication ? 
Madam Dacier^ from some old cuts of Terence^ 
fancies that the larva^ or the persona of the Roman 
actors^ was not only a vizard for the face^ but had 
£edse hair to it, and came over the whole head like a 
helmet. Among all the statues at Rome^ I remem- 
ber to have seen but two that are the figures of 
actors^ wiiich are both in the Villa Matthei. One 
sees on them the fashion of the old sock and larva^ 
the latter of which answers the description that is 
given of it by this learned lady^ though I question 
not but several others were in use ; for I have seen 
the figure of Thalia> the comic muse, sometimes 
with an entire head-piece in her hand> sometimes 
with about half the head^ and a little friz^ like a 
tower^ running round the edges of the face^ and 
sometimes with a mask for the face only^ like those 
of a modern make. Some of the Italian actors wear 
at present these masks for the whole head. I re- 
member formerly I could have no notion of that 
fable in Phaedrus^ before I had seen the figures of 
these entire head-pieces : 

Personam tragicam forte vulpes viderat : 

qttanta species, iTiquit, cerebrum non habet ! 

Lib. i. Fab. 7, 

As wily renard walk'd the streets at night. 
On a tragedian's mask he chanc'd to li^ht, 
Turning it o'er, he mutter'd with disdain. 
How vast a head is here without a brain ! 

o3 



150 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

I find madam Dacier has taken notice of this pas** 
sage in Phaedros^ upon the same occasion ; but not 
of the following one in Martial^ which alludes to the 
same kind of masks : 

Non omnetfalUt : $eit te Proierpina canum : 
Pertonam eapUi detrahet iUa tuo. Lib. iii. ep. 43. 

Why shouldst thou try to bide thywlf in youth ? 
Impartial Proserpine oeholds the truth, 
And, laughing at so fond and vain a task. 
Will strip thy hoary noddle of its mask. 

In the Villa Borghese is the bust of a young 
Nero, which shows us the form of an ancient bulla 
on the breast^ which is neither like a hearty as Ma- 
crobius describes it, nor altogether resembles that in 
cardinal Chigi's cabinet ; so that without establish- 
ing a particular instance into a general rule, we 
ought, in subjects of this nature, to leave room for 
the humour of the artist or wearer. There are 
many figures of gladiators at Rome, though I do 
not remember to have seen any of the Retiarius, the 
Samnite, or the antagonist to the Pinnirapus. But 
what I could not find amone the statues, 1 met with 
in two antique pieces of Mosaic, which are in the 
possession of a cardinal. The Retiarius is engaged 
with the Samnite, and has had so lucky a imroW, 
that his net covers the whole body of his adversary 
from head to foot, yet his antagomst recovered him- 
self out of the toils, and was conqueror, according to 
the inscription. In another piece is represented the 
combat of the Pinnirapus, who is armed like the 
Samnite, and not like the Retiarius, as some learned 
men have supposed : on the helmet of his antagonist 
are seen the two pinnee^ that stand up on either 



ROME. 161 

side like the wings in the petasns of a Merearj^ but 
rise much higher^ and are more pointed. 

There is no part of the Roman antiquities that we 
are better acquainted with than what relates to their 
sacrifices. For as the old Romans were very much 
devoted to their religion^ we see several parts of it 
entering their ancient basso relievos^ statues^ and 
medals^ not to mention their altars^ tombs^ monu- 
ments^ and those particular ornaments of architecture 
which were borrowed from it. An heathen ritual could 
not instruct a man better than these several pieces 
of antiquity^ in the particular ceremonies and punc- 
tilios that attended the different kinds of sacnfices. 
Yet there is much greater variety in the make of the 
sacrificing instruments^ than one finds in those who 
have treated of them^ or have given us their pictures. 
For^ not to insist too long on such a subject^ 1 saw in 
ngnior Antonio Polito's collection^ a patera without 
any rising in the middle^ as it is generally engraven^ 
and another with a handle to it^ as Macrobius de- 
scribes it^ though it is quite oontrarv to any that I 
have ever seen cut in marble ; and I have observed, 
perhaps^ several hundreds. I might here enlarge on 
the shape of the triumphal chariot^ which is different 
in some pieces of sculpture from what it appears in 
others ; and on the figure of the discus, that is to be 
seen in the hand of the celebrated Castor at Don 
Livio's^ which is perfectly rounds and not oblong, as 
some antiquaries have represented it ; nor has it any- 
thing like a sling fastened to it, to add force to the 
toss: 

Protinus imprudent, actutque cupidine ludi, 
Tollere T^enarides orbem properahat 



De Hyacinthi disco. Ot. Met lib. 10. 



162 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

Th' unwaiy youth, impatient for the cast. 
Went to snatch up the rolling orb in haste. 

Notwithstanding there are so great a multitude 
of clothed statues at Rome^ I could neyer discover 
the several different Roman garments^ for it is very 
difficult to trace out the figure of a vest^ through all 
the plaits and foldings of uie drapery ; besides that, 
the Roman garments did not diner fit>m each other 
so much by the shape as by the embroidery and 
colour, the one of which was too nice for the sta- 
tuary's observation, as the other does not lie within 
the expression of the chisel. I observed, in abund- 
ance of has reliefs, that the dnctus gabinus is nothing 
else but a long garment, not unlike a surplice, which 
would have tniued on the ground had it hung loose, 
and was therefore gathered about the middle with a 
girdle. After this it is worth while to read the la- 
borious description that Ferrarius has made of it. 
Cincius gabinus rum aliudjuit qudm cum togce (o- 
cinia lasvo brachio sudducta in tergum ita rgtciebii- 
tur, ut contracta retraheretur ad pectus, atque ita in 
nodum necteretur; qui nodus sive dnctus togam con^ 
trahebat, brevtoremque et strictiarem reddidit. De 
Re Vestiar. lib. i. c. 14. Lipsius*s description of the 
Samnite armour seems drawn out of the very words 
of Liyy ; yet not long aso a statue which was dug 
up at Rome, dressed in this kind of armour, gives a 
much different explication of Livy from what fipsius 
has done. This figure was superscribed BA. TO, 
NI. from whence Fabretti^ concludes, that it was 
a monument erected to the gladiator Bato, who, 
after having succeeded in two combats^ was killed in 

* Vid« Fabr. de Column^ Trajani. 



ROMB. 153 

the third, and honourably interred by order of the 
emperor Caracalla. The manner of punctuation 
after each syllable is to be met with in otner antique 
inscriptions. I confess I could never learn where 
this figure is now to be seen, but I think it may 
serve as an instance of the great uncertainty of this 
science of antiquities. 

In a palace of prinoci Cesarini, I saw busts of all 
the Antonine family, which were dug up about two 
years since, not far from Albano, in a place where is 
supposed to have stood a villa of Marcus Aurelius. 
There are the heads of Antoninus Pius, the Fausti- 
nas, Marcus Aurelius, Lucius Verus, a young Com- 
modus, and Annius Verus, all incomparably well 
cut. 

Thougli the statues that have been found among 
the ruins of old Rome are already very numerous, 
there is no question but posterity will have the 
pleasure of seeing many noble pieces of sculpture 
which are still undiscovered; for, doubtless, there 
are greater treasures of this nature under ground, 
than what are yet brought to light. They have 
often dug into lands that are described in old au- 
thors, as the places where such particular statues or 
obelisks stood, and have seldom failed of success in 
their pursuits. There are still many such promising 
spots of ground that have never been searched into. 
A great part of the Palatine mountain, for example, 
lies untouched, which was formerly the seat of the 
.imperial palace, and may be presumed to abound 
with more treasures of this nature than any other 
part of Rome : 

Ecce Palatino crevit reverentia monti, 
Exsultatque habitante deo, potioraque Delphis 
. Supplicibus late populis oracula pandit. 



154 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

N4m oUum eerie deemJU reetoribuM arbU 
Esse larem, nuUoque magU se cclle pctestas 
.Xstimat et summi sentitfastigia juris, 
AttoUens apieem ntbjectis regta rostris 
Tet dreuHi deiubra videt, tantUqus deorum 
Ciwgiiwr eaeukm^ 

Claud, de Sexto Cons. Hon. 

The Palatine, proud Rome's imperial seat, 
(An awful pile ! ) stands Tenerablj great : 
Thither the kingdoms and the nations come. 
In supplicating crowds to learn their doom ; 
To Delphi less th' inquiring worlds repair. 
Nor does a greater god inhabit there ; 
This sure the pompous mansion was designed 
To please the mignty rulers of mankind ; 
Interior temples rise on either hand, 
And on the borders of the palace stand. 
While o'er the rest her heaa she proudly rears. 
And lodg'd amidst her guardian gods appears. 

Bat whether it be that the richest of these dis* 
coveries £Edl into the pope's hands, or for some other 
reason, it is said that the prince Farnese, who is the 
present owner of this seat, will keep it from bdng 
tamed up till he sees one of his own fieonily in the 
chair. There are undertakers in Rome who often 
purchase the dimng of fields> eardens, or vineyards, 
where they find^any likelihood of succeeding, and 
some hare been known to arrire at great estates by 
it. They pay according to the dimensions of the 
surface they are to break up; and after having made 
essays into it> as they do mr coal in England^ they 
rake into the most promising parts of it, though they 
often find, to their disappointment, that others have 
been beforehand with them. However, they gene- 
rally gain enough by the rubbish and bricks, whici 
the present architects value much beyond those of a 
modem make, to defray the charges of their search. 



ROMEi ]55 

I was shown two spaces of ground^ where part of 
Nero's golden house stood^ for which the owner has 
been offered an extraordinary sum of money. What 
encouraged the undertakers^ are several very ancient 
trees^ which grow upon the spot^ from whence they 
oondude that these particular tracts of ground must 
have lain untouched for some ages. It is pity there 
is not something like a public register^ to preserve 
the memory of such statues as have been found from 
time to time> and to mark the particular places 
where they have been taken up^ which would not 
only prevent many fruitless searches for the future^ 
but might often give a considerable light into the 
quality of the place> or the design of the statue. 

But the great magazine for all kinds of treasure^ 
is supposed to be the bed of the Tiber. We may be 
sure^ when the Romans lay under the apprehensions 
of seeing their dty sacked by a barbarous enemy> as 
they have done more than once^ that they would take 
care to bestow such of their riches this way as could 
best bear the water^ besides what the insolence of 
a brutish conqueror may be supposed to have con- 
tributed^ who had an ambition to waste and destroy 
all the beauties of so celebrated a city. I need not 
mention the old common-shore of Rome> which ran 
from all parts of the tovm with the current and vio- 
lence of an ordinary river> nor the frequent inunda- 
tions of the Tiber^ which may have swept away 
many of the ornaments of its banks^ nor the several 
statues that the Romans themselves flung into it^ 
when they would revenge themselves on the memofy 
of an ill citizen^ a dead tyrant^ or a discarded fa- 
vourite. At Rome they have so general an opinion 
of the riches of this river^ that the Jews have for- 
metly proffered the pope to cleanse it> so they 



166 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

might have for their pains what they found in. the 
bosom of it. I have seen the valley near Ponte 
Molloj which they proposed to fashion into a new 
channel for it^ until they had cleared the old for its. 
reception. The pope, however, would not comply 
with the proposal, as fearing the heats might advance 
too fiar before they had finished their work, and pro-« 
duce a pestilence among his people ; though I do not 
see why such a design might not be executed now 
with as little danger as m Augustus's time, were 
there as many hands employed upon it. The city of 
Rome would receive a great advantage from the 
undertaking, as it would raise the banks and deepeii 
the bed of the Tiber, and bv consequence free them 
from those frequent inundations to which they are so 
subject at present ; for the channel of the river is 
observed to be narrower within the walls than either 
below or above them. 

Before I quit this subject of the statues, I think 
it very observable, that among those which are 
already found there should be so many not only of 
the same persons, but made after the same design. 
One would not indeed wonder to see several figures 
of particular deities and emperors, who had a multi-< 
tuae of temples erected to them, and had their 
several sets of worshippers and admirers. Thus 
Ceres, the most beneficent and useful of the heathen 
divinities, has more statues than any other of the 
gods or goddesses, as several of the Roman empresses 
took a pleasure to be represented in her dress. 
And I believe one finds as many figures of that ex- 
cellent emperor Marcus Aurelius, as of all the rest 
together ; because the Romans had so great a vene- 
ration for his memory, that it grew into a part of 
their religion to preserve a statue of him in almost 



ROME. t57 

every private family. But hew comes it to pass 
that 80 many of these statues are cut after the very 
same models and not only of these but of such as 
had no relation either to the interest or devotion of 
the owner; as the dying Cleopatra^ the Nardssns^ 
the Fawn leaning against the trunk of a tree^ the 
Boy with the bird in his hand^ the Leda and her 
swan^ with many others of the same nature ? I must 
confess I always look upon figures of this kind as 
the copies of some celebrat^ masterpiece^ and 
question not but they were famous originals^ that 
gave rise to the several statues which we see with 
the same air^ posture^ and attitudes. What con- 
firms me in this conjecture^ there are many ancient 
statues of the Venus de Medicisj the Silenus with 
the young Bacchus in his arms^ the Hercules Far- 
nese^ the Antinous> and other beautiful originals of 
the andents^ that are already drawn out of the 
rubbishy where they lay concealed for so many ages. 
Among the rest I have observed more that are 
formed after the design of the Venus of Medids 
than of any other^ from whence I believe one may 
conclude^ that it was the most celebrated statue 
among the andents^ as well as among the modems. 
It has always been usual for sculptors to work upon 
the best models^ as it is for those that are curious to 
have copies of them. 

I am apt to think something of the same account 
may be given of the resemblance that we meet with 
in many of the antique basso relievos. I remember 
I was very well pleased with the device of one that 
I met with on the tomb of a young Roman lady^ 
which had been made for her by her mother. The 
sculptor had chosen the rape of Proserpine for his 
device^ where in one end you might see the god of 

VOL. IV. p 



158 RBMARKS ON ITALY. 

the dead (Pluto) hurrying away a beautiful young 
virgin (Proserpine)^ and at the other the grief and 
distraction of the mother (Ceres) on that occasion. 
I have since observed the same device upon several 
sarcophagi, that have inclosed the ashes of men or 
boys^ maids or matrons ; for when the thought took^ 
though at first it received its rise from such a parti- 
cular occasion as I have mentioned^ the ignorai^ce of 
the sculptors applied it promiscuously. I know 
there are authors who discover a mystery in this 
device. 

A man is sometimes surprised to find so many ex- 
travagant fancies as are cut on the old pagan tombs. 
Masks^ hunting-matches^ and bacchanals are very 
common ; sometimes one meets with a lewd figure 
of a priapus, and in the villa Pamphilia is seen a 
satyr coupling with a goat. There are^ however^ 
many of a more serious nature^ that shadow out the 
existence of the soul after deaths and the hopes of a 
happy immortality. I cannot leave the basso re- 
lievos without mentioning one of them, where the 
thought is extremely nolue. It is called Homer's 
apotheosis^ and consists of a group of figures cut in 
the same block of marble, and rising one above 
another by four or five different ascents. Jupiter 
sits at the top of it with a thunderbolt in his hand, 
and^ in such a majesty as Homer himself represents 
him^ presides over the ceremony : 

Evpov ^ ivpwnra xpovi^ijv drtp ^fievov aXktav 
Axpordry Kopv4tf froXvdiipdSos OvXvfifroio. 

Immediately beneath him are the figures of the 
nine muses^ supposed to be celebrating the praises of 
the poet. Homer himself is placed at one end of 
the lowest row> sitting in a chair of state^ which is 



ROME. 159 

supported on each side by the figure of a kneeling 
woman. The one holds a sword in her hand to 
represent the Iliads or actions of Achilles^ as the 
other has an aplustre to represent the Odyssey^ or 
voyage of Ulysses. About the poet*s feet are creep- 
ing a couple of mice^ as an emblem of the batracho- 
•myomachia. Behind the chair stands Time and the 
Genius of the Earth, distinguished by their proper 
attributes, and putting a garland on the poet's head, 
to intimate the mighty reputation he has gained in 
all ages and in all nations of the world. Before him 
stands an altar, with a bull ready to be sacrificed to 
the new god, and behind the victim a train of the 
several virtues that are represented in Homers 
works, or to be learnt out of them, lifting up their 
liands in admiration of the poet, and in applause of 
the solemnity. This antique piece of sculpture is in 
the possession of the constable Colonna, but never 
shown to those who see the palace, unless they par- 
ticularly desire it. 

Among the great variety of ancient coins which I 
saw at Rome, I could not but take particular notice 
of such as relate to any of the buildings or statues 
that are still extant. Those of the first kind have 
been already published by the writers of the Roman 
antiquities, and may be most of them met with in 
the last edition of Donatus, as the pillars of Trajan 
and Antonine, the arches of Drusus Germanicus and 
Septimius Seven^s, the temples of Janus, Concord, 
Vesta, Jupiter Tonans, Apollo, and Faustina, the 
Circus Maximus, Agonalis, and that of Caracalla, 
or, according to Fabretti, of Galienus, of Vespa- 
sian's amphitheatre, and Alexander Severus's baths ; 
though, I must confess, the subject of the last may 
i>^ veiy well doubted of. As for the Meta sudans 



160 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

and PiHu Miuu, which bare gained a place ameag 
tbe buildings that are now atanding, and to be met 
with on old rerenes of medab ; tbe cmn that shown 
tbe fint is generally rejected as spurious : ncH ia the 
other, though cited in the last edition of monsieur 
Vaillant, esteemed more authentic by the present 
Roman medalists, who are certainly tbe most skilful 
in tbe world, as to tbe meduuucal part of tbia 
acience. I ihall close np this set of medals witb a 
very curious one, as lai^ as a medallion, that is 
singular in its kind. On (me side is the head of the 
emperor Trajan, tbe reverse has on it tbe Circus 
Maximus, and a riew of the side of the Palatine 
mountain that foces it, on which are seen sereral 
edifices, and among the rest tbe famous temple <f 
Apollo, that has still a considerable ruin standing. 
This medal I saw in tbe bands of mooseigneur 
Stroasi, brother to the duke of that name, who has 
manj^ curiosities in bis possession, and is rery 
obliging to a stranger who desires the sight of them. 
It is a surprising thing, that among tbe ^reat piecea 
of arcbilecture represented on the old coins, one can 
never meet witb the Pantheon, tbe Mausoleum of 
Augiutus, Nero's golden house, the Moles Adriani, 
the Septisonium of Sevnus, tbe baths of Dioclesiao, 
etc But since it was tbe cusbnn of the Roman 
emperors thus to T^;ister their most remarkable 
buildings as well as actions ; and since there are 
several in either of these kinds not to be found on 
medals, more extraordinary than those that are ; we 
may, I think, witb great reaB«Mi, suspect our collec- 
tions of old coins to be extremely deficient, and tbat 
those which are already found out, scarce bear a 
proportion to what are yet undieoorered. A man 
takes a great deal more pleasure in surreying th« 



ROME. 161 

rnndent statues^ who compares them with medab, 
^han it is possihle for him to do without some little 
Jmowledge this way ; for these two arts illustrate 
«ach other ; and as there are several particulars in 
liistory and antiquities which receive a great light 
£nm ancient coins> so would it be impossible to 
decipher the faces of the many statues that are to 
be seen at Rome, without so universal a key to 
them. It is this that teaches to distinguish the 
kings and ocmsuls, emperors and em)»«s8es, .the 
deities and virtues, with a thousand other particulars 
relating to statuary, and not to be learnt by any 
other means. In the Villa Pamphilia stands the 
statue of a man in woman's clothes, which the anti- 
quaries do not know what to make of, and therefore 
pass it off for an hermaphrodite; but a learned 
medalist in Rome has lately fixed it to Clodius, who 
is so feunous for having intruded into the solemnities 
ef the Bona Dea in a woman's habit, for one sees the 
same features and make of face in a medal of the 
Glodian feimily. 

I have seen on coins the four finest figures perhaps 
that are now extant: the Hercules Famese, the 
Venus <^ Medicis, the Apollo in the Belvidere, and 
the famous Marcus Aurelius on horseback. The 
oldest medal that the first appears upon is one of 
Commodus, the second on one oi Faustina, the 
third on one of Antoninus Pius, and the last on one 
of Lucius Verus. We may conclude, I think, from 
hence, that these statues were extremely celebrated 
among the old Romans, or they would never have 
been honoured with a place among the emperor's 
coins. We may farther observe, that all four of 
them make their first appearance in the Antonine 
family, for which reason I am apt to think thev are 

p3 " 



162 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

all of them the product of that age. They would 
probably have been mentioned by Pliny the natu- 
ralist^ who lived in the next reign save one before 
Antoninus Pius^ had they been made in his time. 
As for the brazen figure of Marcus Aurelius on 
horseback^ there is no doubt of its being of this age^ 
though I must confess it may be doubted whether 
the medal I have cited represents it. All I can say 
for it is^ that the horse and man on the medal are in 
the same posture as they are on the statue^ and that 
there is a resemblance of Marcus Aurelius's face; for 
' I have seen this reverse on a medallion of Don Livio s 
cabinet^ and much more distinctly in another very 
beautiful one> that is in the hands of signior Marc. 
Antonio. It is generally objected, that Lucius 
Verus would rather have placed the figure of himself 
on horseback upon the reverse of his own coin^ than 
the figure of Marcus Aurelius. But it is very well 
known that an emperor often stamped on his coins 
the face or ornaments of his colleague^ as an instance 
of his respect or friendship for him; and we may 
suppose Lucius Verus would omit no opportunity of 
domg honour to Marcus Aurelius^ whom he rather 
revered as his father than treated as his partner in 
the empire. The famous Antinous in the Belvidere 
must have been made too about this age, for he died 
towards the middle of Adrian's reign, the immediate 
predecessor of Antoninus Pius. This entire ^gare, 
though not to be found in medals, may be seen in 
several precious stones. Monsieur La Chausse, the' 
author of the Museum Komanum, showed me an An-' 
tinous that he has published in his last volume, cut 
in a cornelian, whicn he values at fifty pistoles. It 
represents him in the habit of a Mercury, and is the 
finest intaglio that I ever saw.- 



ROME. 163 

Next to the statues, there is nothing in Rome 
more surprising than that amazing variety of ancient 
pillars of so many kinds of marble. As most of the 
old statues may be well supposed to have been 
<;heap^ to their first owners than they are to a 
modern purchaser, several of the pillars are certainly 
rated at a much lower price at present than they 
were of old. For not to mention what a huge 
column of granate, serpentine, or porphyry must have 
cost in the quarry, or in its carriage from Egypt to 
Rome, we may only consider the great difficulty of 
hewing it into any form, and of giving it the due turn, 
proportion, and polish. It is well known how these 
sorts of marble resist the impressions of such instru- 
ments as are now in use. There is, indeed, a Mila- 
nese.at Rome who works in them ; but his advances 
are so very slow, that he scarce lives upon what he 
gains by it. He showed me a piece of porphyry 
worked into an ordinary salver, which had cost him 
four months' continual application, before he could 
bring it into that form. The ancients had probably 
some secret to harden the edges of their tools, with- 
out recurring to those extrayagant opinions of their 
havings an art to mollify the stone, or that it was 
naturaUy softer at its first cutting from the rock, or, 
what is still more absurd, that it was an artificial 
composition, and not the natural product of mines 
and quarries. The most valuable pillars about 
Rome, for the marble of which they are made, are 
the four columns of oriental jasper in St. Paulina's 
chapel at St. Maria Maggiore ; two of oriental gra- 
nate in St. Pudenziana; one of trasparent oriental 
jasper in the Vatican library ; foiir of Nero- Bianco, 
in St. Cecilia Transtevere ; two of Brocatello, and 
two of oriental agate in Don Livio's palace ; two of 



164 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

Oiallo Antioo in St. John Lateran, and two of Verdi 
Antique in the Villa Pamphilia. These are all en- 
tire and solid pillars, and made of such kinds of 
marble as are nowhere to be found but among anti- 
quities^ whether it be that the veins of it are undis- 
covered^ or that they were quite exhausted upon the 
ancient buildings. Among these old pillars^ I can- 
not forbear reckoning a ereat part of an alabaster 
column^ which was found in the ruins of Ldvia's 
portico. It is of the colour of fire^ and may be seen 
over the high altar of St. Maria in Campitello ; for 
they have cut it into two pieces, and fixed it in the 
shape of a cross in a hole of the wall that was made 
on purpose to receive it ; so that the light passing 
through it firom without, makes it look, to those who 
are in the church, like a huge transparent cross of 
amber. As for the workmanship of the old Roman 
pillars, monsieur Desgodetz, in his accurate mea« 
sures of these ruins, has obsMsrved, that the ancients 
have not kept to the nicety of proportion, and the 
rules of art, so much as the modems in this particu-* 
lar. Some, to excuse this defect, lay the blame of 
it on the workmen of Egypt, and of other nations, 
who sent most of the ancient pillars ready shaped to 
Rome : others sav that the ancients, knowing archi- 
tecture was chiefly designed to please the eye, only 
took care to avoid such disproportions as were gross 
enough to be observed by the sight, without mindins 
whether or no they approach^ to a mathematical 
exactness : others will have it rather to be an effect 
of art, and of what the Italians call the gusto grande, 
than of any negligence in the architect; for they 
say the ancients always considered the situation of a 
building, whether it were high or low, in an open 
square or in a narrow street, and more or less de- 



ROME. ^05 

viated £n>m their rules of art, to compLj with the 
several distances and elerations from which their 
works were to be regarded. It is said there is an 
Ionic pillar in the Santa Maria Transtevere^ where 
the marks of the compass dre still to be seen on the 
volute^ and that PaUadio learnt from hence the 
working of that difficult problem ; but I never could 
find time to examine aJl the old columns of that 
church. Among the pillars, I must not pass over 
the two noblest in the world, of Trajan and Anto- 
nine. There could not have been a more magnifi- 
ceitt design than that of Trajan's pillar. Where 
could an emperor's ashes have been so nobly lodged, 
as in the midst of his metropolis, and on the top of 
so exalted a monument, with the greatest of his ac- 
tions underneath him ? Or, as some will have it, his 
statue was on the top, his urn at the foundation, and 
his battles in the midst. The sculpture of it is too 
well known to be h^e mentioned. The most re- 
markable piece of Antonine's pillar is the figure of 
Jupiter Pluvius sending down rain on the fainting 
army of Marcus Aurelius, and thunderbolts on his 
enemies^ which is the greatest confirmation possible 
of the story of the Christian legion, and will be a 
standing evidence for it, when any passage in an old 
author may be supposed to be forged. The figure 
that Jupiter here makes among the clouds, puts me 
in mind of a passage in the .£neid, which gives just 
such another image of him. Virgil's interpreters 
are certainly to blame, that suppose it is nothing but 
the air which is here meant by Jupiter : 

Quantus ab occatu veniens, pluvialibiu Hedit, 
Verbtrat imber Aumnin, quam muUd grandine nimbi 



166 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

In vmdn jtneeipUantf cum Jupiter horridus austrit 
Torquet mqtumam hyemem, et eedo cava nubila rumpit. 

^N. 9. 

The combat thickens, like the storm that flies 

From westward, when the show'ry kids arise : 

Or patt'iing hail comes pouring on the main. 

When Jopiter descends in harden'd rain ; 

Or bellowmg clouds bunt with a stormy sound, 

And with an anned winter strew the ground. Dhyoen. 

I have seen a medal that> according to the opinion 
of many learned men, relates to the same story. 
The emperor is entitled on it Germanicos (as it was 
in the wars of Germany that this circumstance hap- 
pened), and carries on the reverse a thunderbolt in 
his hand; for the heathens attributed the same 
miracle to the piety of the emperor, that the 
Christians ascribed to the prayers of their legion. 
Fulmen de ccelo precibus suis contra hostium macki' 
namentum Marcus extoriU, suis pluvid impctratd 
cum siii laborarent, Jul. Capit. 

Claudian takes notice of this miracle, and has 
given the same reason for it : 



Ad templa vocatus. 



CUimens Marce, redis, cum gentibut undiqiLe einctam 
ExuU Hesperiam paribus foriuna periclis, 
Laus Un nulla ducwn, namfiammeus imber in hostem 
Deeidit: hunc dorso trepidum jiammante fer^at 
AmbuUut $onipe$ ; hie tabe$eente iolutus 
StUuedit gaUdf liquefactaquefulgure cuspii 
Canduit, et tubiti* jiuiere vaporibus etaes. 
Tune eontenta polo mortalii nescia teli 
Pvgnafuit ; Chald^ta mago teu carmina ritu 
Armavere Deo* ; uu, quod reor, omne tonantis 
Obtequium Marei mores potuere mereri. 

De Sexto Cons. Hon. 



ROME. 167 

So mild Aurelius to the gods repaid 
The grateful vows that in his fears he made. 
When Latium from unnumbered foes was freed : 
Nor did he then by his own force succeed; 
But with descending show'rs of brimstone fir'd. 
The wild barbarian in the storm expired. 
Wrapt in devouring flames the horseman rag'd^ 
And spurred the steed, in eaual flames ensag'd : 
Another pent in his scorchM armour glow d. 
While from his head the melting helmet flow'd; 
Swords by the lightning's subtle force distillM, 
And the cold sheath with running metal fill*d : 
No human arm its weak assistance brought. 
But heav'n, ofiended beav'n, the battle fought ; 
Whether dark magic and Chaldean charms 
Had flird the skies, and set the gods in arms ; 
Or good Aurelius (as I more believe) 
Deserv'd whatever aid the thunderer could give. 

I do not remember that M. Dacier^ among several 
quotations on this subject^ in the life of Marcus Au- 
relius^ has taken notice either of the forementioned 
figure on the pillar of Marcus Antoninus^ or of the 
beautiful passage I have quoted out of Claudian. 

It is pity the obelisks in Rome had not been 
charged with several parts of the Egyptian histories 
instead of hieroglyphics^ which might have given no 
small light to the antiquities of that nation^ which 
are now quite sunk out of sight in those remoter 
ages of the world. Among the triumphal arches, 
that of Constantino is not only the noblest of any in 
Rome^ but in the world. I searched narrowly into 
it^ especially among those additions of sculpture 
made in the emperor's own age, to see if I could find 
anv marks of the apparition that is said to have pre- 
ceded the very victory which gave occasion to the 
triumphal arch. But there are not the least traces 
of it to be met with^ which is not very strange^ if we 



168 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

OQDnder tbat the greatest port of the ornaments wenr 
taken from Trajan s arch, and set np to the new con- 
qaeror in no small haste, by the senate and people of 
Kome, who were then most of them heathens. There 
is, ho wever , something in the inscription, which is as 
old as the ardi itself, ^i^iich seems to hint at the 
emptor's vinon. Imp, Cass, FL Constantino maxima 
P. F, Augmsto S, P. Q. R. quod instinctu divinitatis 
wteniis magnitudime cum exercUu suo tarn de Tjy- 
mano qudm de omni epufactione uno tempore justis 
RemptSUicam ultus est armis arcum triumpkis insig~ 
nem dicavit* There is no statne of this emperor at 
Rome with a cross to it, though the ecclesiastical 
historians say there were many such erected to him. 
I haTe seen of his medals that were stamped with it, 
and a Terr remarkable one of his son Constantins, 
ndiere he is crowned by a victory on the reverse with 

this inscription. In hoc Signo Victor eris ^ . Thia 
triumphal arch, and some other buildings of the 
same age, shows us that architecture held up its 
head after all the other arts of designing were in a 
▼erv weak and languishing omdition, as it was pro- 
bamy the first among them that revived. If I was 
snrpnsed not to find the cross in Constantino's arch, 
I waa as much disappointed not to see the figure of 
the temple of Jerusalem on that of Titus, where are 
represented the golden candlestick, the table of 
showbread, and the river Jordan. Some are of 
opinion, that the Composite pillars of this arch weare 
made in imitation of the pillars of Scdomon's temple, 
and observe that these are the most ancient of any 
that are found of that order. 

It is almost impossible for a man to form, in his 
imagination, such beautiful and glorious scenes as 
are to be met with in several of the Roman churdies 



ROME. 169 

wd chapels ; for^ having such a prodigious stock of 
ancient marble within the very city^ and at the same 
time so many, different quarries in the bowels of 
their country^ most of their chapels are laid over 
with such a rich variety of incrustations^ as cannot 
possibly be found in any other part of the world. 
And notwithstanding the incredible sums of money 
which have been already laid out this way^ there is 
still the same work going forward in other parts of 
Rome^ the last still endeavouring to outshine those 
that went before them. Painting, sculpture, and 
architecture are at present far from being in a 
flourishing condition ; but it is thought they may all 
recover themselves under the present pontificate^ if 
the wars and confusions of Italy will give them 
leave. For as the pope is himself a master of polite 
learning, and a great encourager of arts, so at Kome 
any of these arts immediately thrives under the en- 
couragement of the prince, and may be fetched up 
to its perfection in ten or a dozen years, which is 
the work of an age or two in other countries, where 
they have not such excellent models to form them- 
selves upon. 

I shall conclude my observations on Rome with a 
letter of king Henry the eighth to Anne of Bulleyn, 
transcribed out of the famous manuscript in the 
Vatican, which the bishop of Salisbury assures us is 
written with the king's own hand. 

'^ The cause of my writing at this time is to hear 
of your health and prosperity, of which I would be 
as glad as in manner of my own, praying God that it 
be his pleasure to send us shortly together, for I 

Iiromise I long for it ; howbeit I trust it shall not be 
ong too, and seeing my darling is absent I can no 

VOIi. IV. Q 



iro REMARKS ON ITALY. 

less do than send her some fleshy prognosticating that 
hereafter thou must hare some or mine^ wbich^ if he 
please^ I would have now. As touching your sister s 
mother^ I have consigned Walter Welsh to write to 
my lord Manwring my mind therein^ whereby I 
trust he shaU not have power to disseid her; for 
surely^ whatever is said^ it cannot so stand with his 
honour^ but that he must needs take his natural 
daughter in her extreme necessity. No more to yoa 
at this time, my own darling, but that with a whistle 
I wish we were together one evening ; by the hand 
of yours. 

'' HENRY." 

These letters are always shown to an Englishman 
that visits the Vatican library. 



TOWNS WITHIN T«E NEIGHBOURHOOD OF ROME. 

I SPENT three or four days on Tivoli, Frescati, 
Palaestrina, and Albano. In our way to Tivoli I saw 
the rivulet of Salforata, formerly called Albula, and 
smelt the stench that arises from its waters some 
time before I saw them. Martial mentions this 
offensive smell in an epigram of the fourth book, as 
he does the rivulet itself in the first : 

Quod tUctt redolet palus lacuna, 

Crudarum nebuUt quod Albularum, Lib. iv. ep. 4. 

The drying marshes such a stench convey. 
Such the rank steams of reeking Albula. 

Iter ad Herculti gelidas qua Tiburis arces, 

Canaque sulphureis AUmlafumat aquis. Lib. i. ep. 13* 

As from high Rome to Tivoli you go, 
Where Albula's sulphureous waters flow. 



TOWNS NEAR ROME. 171 

The little lake tbat gives rise to this river^ with 
its floating islands^ is one of the most extraordinary 
natural cnriosities about Rome. It lies in the very 
flat of Campania^ and as it is the drain of these 
parts, it is no wonder that it is so impregnated with 
sulphur. It has at bottom so thick a sediment of it^ 
that upon throwing in a stone the water boils for a 
considerable time over the place which has been 
stirred up. At the same time are seen little flakes 
of scurf rising up^ that are probably the parts which 
compose the islands^ for they often mount of them- 
selveSj though the water is not troubled. 

I question not but this lake was formerly much 
larger than it is at present^ and that the banks have 
grown over it by degrees, in the same manner as the 
islands have been formed on it. Nor is it impro- 
bable but that^ in process of time^ the whole surface 
of it may be crusted over^ as the islands enlarge 
themselves, and the banks close in upon them. All 
about the lake> where the ground is dry^ we found 
it to be hollow by the trampling of our horses* feet. 
I could not discover the least traces of the Sibyls' 
temple and grove, which stood on the borders of this 
lake. TivoH is seen at a distance lying along the 
brow of a hill. Its situation has given Horace occa- 
sion to call it Tibur Supinum^ as Virgil^ perhaps 
for the same reason^ entitles it Superbum. Tne 
Villa de Medicis with its water- works, the cascade 
of the Teverone, and the ruins of the Sibyls' temple 
{of which Vignola has made a little copy at St. 
Peter^s de Montorio) are described in every itinerary. 
I must confess I was most pleased with a beautiful 
prospect that none of them have mentioned^ which 
lies at about a mile's distance from the town. It 
opens on one side into the Roman Campania^ where 



172 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

the eye loses itself on a smooth spacious plain. On 
the other side is a more broken and interrupted 
8oene> made up of an infinite variety of inequalities 
and shadowings> that naturally arise from an agree- 
able mixture of hills> groves^ and valleys. But the 
most enlivening part of all is the river Teverone^ 
which you see at about a quarter of a mile's distance 
throwing itself down a precipice^ and falling by 
several cascades from one rock to another^ till it 
gains the bottom of the valley^ where the sight of it 
would be quite lost^ did it not sometimes discover 
itself through the breaks and openings of the woods 
that grow about it. The Roman painters often 
work upon this landscape ; and I am apt to believe 
that Horace had his eye upon it in those two or 
three beautiful touches which he has given us of 
these seats. The Teverone was formerly called the 
Anio: 

Me nee tarn patieru Laced/emon, 
Nee tam Larwut percussit campus ffpitrue, 

Quam domus Albu'ne4B reso7iantis, 
Et praceps Anio, et Tihumi lacui, et uda 

Mohilihus pomaria rivis. Lib. i. Od. 7. 

Not fair Larissa's fruitful shore. 

Nor Lacedaemon charms me more. 

Than hi?h Albunea's airy walls 

Resounding with her waterfalls, 

And Tivoli's delightful shades. 

And Anio rolling in cascades, 

That through the flow'ry meadows glides. 

And all the beauteous scene divides. 

I remember monsieur Dacier explains mobilibus 
by ductilibus, and believes that the word relates to 
the conduits^ pipes, and canals that were made to 
distribute the waters up and down^ according to the 
pleasure of the owner. But any cme who sees the 



TOWNS NEAR ROME. ITS 

Teverone must be of another opinion^ and conclude 
it to be one of the most moveable rivers in the 
worlds that has its stream broken by such a mul- 
titude of cascades^ and is so often shifted out of 
one channel into another. After a very turbulent 
and noisy course of several miles among the rocks 
and mountains^ the Teverone falls into the valley 
before mentioned^ where it recovers its temper^ as it 
were^ by little and little^ and after many turns and 
windings glides peaceably into the Tiber. In which 
sense we are to understand Silius Italicus's de- 
scription to give it its proper beauty : 

SulphureiM gelidus qu^ serpit Uniter undis 

Ad genitorem Anio, laberu sine murmure, Tibrim, Lib. 12. 

Here the loud Anio's boist'rous clamouis cease, 
That with submissive murmurs glides in peace 
To his old sire the Tiber. 

At Frescati I had the satisfaction of seeing the 
first sketch of Versailles in the walks and water- 
works. The prospect from it was doubtless much 
more delightful formerly^ when the Campania was 
set thick with towns^ villas^ and plantations. Cicero's 
Tusculum was at a place called Grotto Ferrate^ 
about two miles off this town, though most of the 
modem writers have fixed it to Frescati. Nardini 
saysj there was found among the ruins at Grotto 
Ferrate a piece of sculpture which Cicero himself 
mentions in one of his familiar epistles. In going to 
Frescati we had a fair view of mount Aleido. 

On our way to Paleestrina we saw the lake Regil- 
lus^ famous for the apparition of Castor and Pollux^ 
who were here seen to give their horses drink after 
the battle between the Romans and the son-in-law 
of Tarquin. At some distance from it we had a 

q3 



174 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

view of the Lacos Grabinns^ tliat is much larger 
than the former. We left the road for about half a 
mile to see the sources of a modem aqueduct. It is 
entertaining to observe how the several little springs 
and rills, that break out of the sides of the mountain, 
are gleaned up, and conveyed through little covered 
channels into the main hollow of the aqueduct. It 
was certainly very lucky for Rome, seeing it had 
occasion for so many aqueducts, that there chanced 
to be such a range of mountains within its neigh- 
bourhood. For by this means they could take up 
their water from what height they pleased, without 
the expense of such an engine as that of Marli. 
Thus tne Glaudian aqueduct ran thirty-eight miles, 
and sunk after the proportion of ^re foot and a half 
every mile, by the advantage only of a high source, 
and the low situation of Rome. Paliestrina stands 
very high, like most other towns in Italy, for the 
advantage of the cool breezes, for which reason 
Virgil calls it Altum, and Horace Frigidum Prseneste. 
Statins calls it Praeneste Sacrum, because of the 
famous temple of Fortune that stood in it. There 
are still great pillars of granate, and other fragments 
of this ancient temple. But the most considerable 
remnant of it is a very beautiful Mosaic pavement, 
the finest I have ever seen in marble. The parts 
are so well joined together, that the whole piece 
looks like a continued picture. There are in it the 
figures of a rhinoceros, of elephants, and of several 
other animals, with little landscapes which look very 
lively and well painted, though they are made out of 
the natural colours and shadows of the marble. I 
do not remember ever to have met with an old 
Roman Mosaic, composed of little pieces of clay half 
vitrified^ and prepared at the glasshouses^ which 



TOWNS NEAR ROME. 175 

the Italians call 9maUe. These are much in nse at 
present^ and may be made of what colour and figure 
the workman pleases^ which is a modern improve- 
ment of the art^ and enables those who are employed 
in it to make much finer pieces of Mosaic than they 
did formerly. 

In our excursion to Albano we went as far as 
Nemi^ that takes its name from the Nemus Diane. 
The whole country thereabouts is still overrun with 
woods and thickets. The lake of Nemi lies in a 
very deep bottom^ -so surrounded on all sides with 
mountains and groves^ that the surface of it is never 
rufiied with the least breath of wind; which per- 
baps> together with the clearness of its waters^ gave 
it formerly the name of Diana's looking-glass : 



Speeulumque Diana. Viro. 



Prince Gaesarini has a palace at Jensano^ very near 
Nemi^ in a pleasant situation^ and set off with many 
beautiful walks. In our return from Jensano to Al- 
bano we passed through La Ricca^ the Aricia of the 
ancients^ Horace's first stage from Rome to Brundisi. 
Thore is nothing at Albano so remarkable as the 
prospect from the capuchin's garden^ which^ for the 
extent and variety of pleasing incidents^ is^ I thinks 
the most delightful one that I ever saw. It takes in 
the whole Campania^ and terminates in a full view 
of the Mediterranean. You have a sight at the same 
time of the Alban lake^ which lies just by in an oval 
figure of about seven miles rounds and, by reason of 
the continued circuit of high mountains that encom- 
mss it^ looks like the area of some vast amphitheatre. 
This^ together with the several green hills and naked 
rocks within the neighbourhood^ makes the most 
agreeable confusion imaginable. Albano keeps up 



176 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

its credit still for wine, which perhaps would be as 
good as it was anciently^ did they preserve it to as 
mat an age ; bat as for olives Uiere are now very 
few here^ though Uiey are in great plenty at Tivoli : 



AUfoni pretioM wetuetus. Juv. Sat. 13. 



Cms bibet Albanit aliquid de monttbut avt de 

Setims, cufut patriam titulwmque teneetus 

DeUvit wutUd veterisfuligme tesUs, Idem, Sat. 5. 

PeifauM to-moiTOw he may change his wine. 
And arink old spaitiing Alban, or Setine ; 
Whose title, and whose age, with mould o'ergrown. 
The good old cask for ever keeps unknown. Bowles. 

' PaUadiM seu collUnu uteris AWm, 

Mar. lib. v. ep. 1. 

AlbatuK ' Olivit, 

Idem, lib. ix. ep. 16. 

I The places mentioned in this chapter were all of 

I them formerly the cool retirements of the Romans^ 

- where they nsed to hide themselves among the woods 

and mountains^ during the excessive heats of their 
I summer ; as Bajae was the general winter ren- 

I desvous: 

Jam terras volueremqve polumfuga verts aquosi 
Loxot, et Icarus ecdum latratums urit. 

'^ Arduajam densm rarescunt tiuenta jRoumb : 

Has Prmneste sacrum, nemus has glaciaU Dianx, 
Algidus aut horrtns, aut Tuseula protegU umbra, 

I Twuris hi lueos, Anienaquefrigora eaptant, Sil. iv. 1. 

Albanos quoque Tuseulosque eolles 
Et quodeunquejaeet sub urbefrigus, 
Fidenas veteres, breoesqus Rttbras, 
^. £t quod Vif^ineo eruore gaudet 

Ann^ pomiferum tiMtut Perentue. Mar. lib. i. ep. 12$^ 



lOWNS NEAR ROME. 177 

All shun the raging dog-star's sultry heat. 
And from the half-unpeopled town retreat : 
Some hid in Nemi's gloomy forests lie. 
To Palaestrina some for shelter fly ; 
Others to catch the breeze of breathing air. 
To Tusculum or Algido repair ; 
Or in moist Tivoli's retirements find 
A cooling shade, and a refreshing wind. 

On the contrary^ at present Rome is never fuller 
of nobility than m summer time; for the country 
towns are so infested with unwholesome vapours^ 
that they dare not trust themselves in them while 
the heats last. There is no question but the air of 
the Campania would be now as healthful as it was 
formerly^ were there as many fires burning in it, 
and as many inhabitants to manure the soil. Leaving 
Rome about the latter end of October, in my way to 
Sienna, I lay the first night at a little village in 
the territories of the ancient Veil : 

Hoe turn nomina erant, nunc tunt sine nomine Campi, 

The ruins of their capital city are at present so 
far lost, that the geographers are not able to deter- 
mine exactly the place where they once stood: so 
literally is that noble prophecy of Luoan fulfilled, of 
this and other places of Latium : 



Gentes Mars istefuturas 



Obruet, et populos avi venientis in arbem 

E/repto nataleferet. Tunc omne Latinum 

Tabula nomen erit : Gabios, Veiosque, Coramque, 

Pulvere vix tecta poterunt numstrare ruina, 

Albanosque lares, Laurentinosque penates 

Rus vacuum, quod mm habitet nisi node coactd 

Invitus, • Lib. 7. 

Succeeding nations by the sword shall die. 
And swallow'd up in dark oblivion lie ; 



178 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

A)miehty Laliam, with her cities crown'd, 
Shall like an antiquated fable sound ; 
The Veian and the Gabian tow'rs shall fall, 
And one promiscuous niin cover all. 
Nor, after length of years, a stone betray 
The place where once the very ruins lay : 
High Alba's walls, and the Lavinian strand, 
(A lonely desert, and an empty land) 
Shall scarce afford, for needful hours of rest, 
A single house to their benighted guest. 

We here saw the lake Bacca^ that gives rise to 
the Cremera^ on whose banks the Fabii were slain. 

TerctrUum numerabat avot, qitos turbine Martis, 
AbttuUt una die$f cumfors non squa labori 
Patricio Cremer^ maeulavit ianguine ripas* 

SxL. Ital. lib. I. 

Fabius a numerous ancestry could tell. 
Three hundred heroes that in battle fell. 
Near the fam'd Cremera's disast'rous flood. 
That ran polluted with patrician blood. 

We saw afterwards^ in the pr^ess of our voyage^ 
the lakes of Vioo and Bolsena. The last b reckoned 
one and twenty miles in circuity and is plentifully 
stocked with fish and fowl. There are in it a couple 
of islands^ that are perhaps the two fioatine isles 
mentioned by Pliny^ with that improbable circum- 
stance of their appearing sometimes like a circle^ 
sometimes like a triangle, but never like a quad- 
rangle. It is easy enough to conceive how they 
miffht become fixed, though they once floated; and 
it IS not very credible, that the naturalist could be 
deceived in his account of a place that lay, as it 
were, in the neighbourhood of Home. At one end 
of this lake stands Montefiascone^ the habitation of 



TOWNS NEAR ROME. 179 

Virgil's -^ui Falisci^ JEa. 7« and on the side of it 
the town of the Volsinians^ now called Bolsena: 

Aut positis nemorosa inter juga Voliinii$> Juv. Sat. 3. 



Volsinium stood 



Cover'd with mountains, and inclos'd with wood. 

I saw in the churchyard of Bolsena an antique 
funeral monument (of that kind which they call 
a sarcophagus) very entire^ and^ what is particular, 
engraven on all sides with a curious representation 
of a bacchanal. Had the inhabitants observed a. 
couple of lewd figures at one end of it^ they would 
not have thought it a proper ornament for the place 
where it now stands. After having travelled hence 
to Aquapendente> that stands in a wonderful pleasant 
situation, we came to the little brook which separates 
the pope's dominions from the great duke*s. The 
frontier castle of Radico&ni is seated on the highest 
mountain in the country, and is as well fortified as 
the situation of the place will permit. We here 
found the natural face of the country quite changed 
from what we had been entertained with in the 
pope's dominions. For instead of the many beauti- 
ful scenes of green mountains and fruit^ valleys, 
that we had been presented ^ with for some days 
before, we saw now nothing but a wild naked pros- 
pect of rocks and hills, worn on all sides with gutters 
and channels, and not a tree or shrub to be met with 
in a vast circuit of several miles. This savage pros- 
pect put me in mind of the Italian proverb, that 
^ the pope has the flesh, and the great duke the 
bones oi Italy.' Among a large extent of these 
barren mountains I saw but a single spot that was 
cultivated, on which there stood a convent. 



100 REMARKS ON TTALT. 



SIENNA, LEGHORN, PISA. 

SiKMNA Stands bigh, and is adorned with a great 
many towers of brick, which in the time of the oom- 
moowealth were erected to sach of the members as 
bad done any considerable sendee to their country. 
These towers gave us a sight of the town a great 
while before we entered it. There is nothing in this 
city so extraordinary as the cathedral, which a man 
may view with pleasure after he has seen St. Peter's, 
tboogh it is quite of another make, and can only be 
looked upon as one of the masterpieces of Gk>thic 
architecture. When a man sees the prodigious pains 
and expense that our forefiithers have been at in 
these barbarous buildings, one cannot but fancy to 
himself what mirades of architecture they would 
haye left us, had they been only instructea in the 
ri^t way ; for when the devotion of those ages was 
much wanner than that of the present, and the 
riches of the people much more at Uie disposal of the 
mriests, there was so much money consumed on these 
Gothic cathedrals, as would have finished a greater 
variety of noble buildings than have been raised 
either before or since that time. 

One would wonder to see the vast labour that has 
been laid out on this single cathedral. The very 
spouts are loaden with ornaments ; the windows are 
formed like so many scenes of perspective, with a 
multitude of little pillars retiring one behind an- 
other; the great columns are finely engraven with 
fruits and f<uiage that run twisting about them from 
the verj top to the bottom ; the whole body of the 
church IS chequered with different lays of white and 
black marble; the pavement curiously cut out in 



SIENNA, LEGHORN, PISA. 181 

designs and scripture stories ; and the front covered 
with such a variety of figures, and overrun with so 
many little mazes and labyrinths of sculpture, that 
nothing in the world can make a prettier show to 
those who prefer false beauties ana affected orna- 
ments to a noble and majestic simplicity. Over 
against this church stands a large hospital, erected 
by a shoemaker who has been beatified, though 
never sainted. There stands a figure of him super- 
scribed/ Sutor ultra crepidam. I shall speak nothing 
of the extent of this city, the cleanliness of its 
streets, nor the beauty of its piazza, which so many 
travellers have described. As this is the last re- 
public that fell under the subjection of the duke of 
Florence, so is it still supposed to retain many han- 
kerings after its ancient liberty: for this reason, 
when the keys and pageants of the duke's towns and 
governments pass in procession before him, on St. 
John Baptist's day, I was told that Sienna comes in 
the rear of his dominions, and is pushed forward by 
those who follow, to show the reluctancy it has to 
appear in such a solemnity. I shall say nothing of 
the many gross and absurd traditions of St. Catha- 
rine of Sienna, who is the great saint of this place. 
I think there is as much pleasure in hearing a man 
tell his dreams, as in reading accounts of this nature: 
a traveller that thinks them worth his observation, 
may fill a book with them at every great town in 
ItJv. 

From Sienna we went forward to Leghorn, where 
the two ports, the bagnio, and Donatelli's statue of 
the great duke amidst the four slaves chained to his 
pedestal, are very noble sights. The square is one 
of the largest, and will be one of the most beautiful 
in Italy, when this statue is erected in it, and a 

VOIi. IV. B 



182 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

town-house built at one end of it to front the church 
that stands at the other. They are at a continual 
expense to cleanse the ports^ and keep them from 
being choked up^ which they do by the help of 
sereral engines tlutt are always at work, and employ 
many of the great duke s slaves. Whatever part of 
the harbour they scoop in, it has an influence on all 
the rest, for the sea immediately works the whole 
bottom to a level. They draw a double advantage 
from the dirt that is taken up, as it clears the port, 
and at the same time dries up several marshes about 
the town, where they lay it from time to time. One 
can scarce imagine how great profits the duke of 
Tuscany receives from this single place, which are 
not generally thought so considerable, because it 

E asses for a free port. But it is very well known 
ow the great duke, on a late occasion, notwith- 
standing the privileges of the merchants, drew no 
small sums of money out of them ; though still, in 
respect of the exorbitant dues that are paid at most 
other ports, it deservedly retains the name of free. 
It brings into his dominions a great increase of 
people from all other nations. Thev reckon in it 
near ten thousand Jews, many of tnem very rich, 
and so great traffickers, that our English factors 
complain they have most of our country trade in 
their hands. It is true the strangers pay little or 
no taxes directly, but out of everything they buy 
there goes a large gabel to the government. The 
very ice merchant at Leghorn pays above a thousand 
pound sterling annually for his privilege, and the 
tobacco merchant ten thousand. The ground is sold 
by the great duke at a very high price, and houses 
are every day rising on it. All the commodities 
that go up into the country, of which there are 



SIENNA, LEGHORN, PISA. 183 

great quantities^ are clc^ged with impositions as 
soon as they leave Leghorn. All the wines, oils, 
and silks that come down from the fruitfal valleys 
of Pisa, Florence, and other parts of Tuscany, must 
make their way through several duties and taxes 
before they can reach the port. The canal that runs 
from the sea into the Arno gives a convenient car- 
riage to all goods that are to be shipped off, which 
does not a little enrich the owners ; and in propor- 
tion as private men grow wealthy, their legacies, 
law-suits, daughters' portions, etc. increase, in all 
which the great duke comes in for a considerable 
share. The Lucquese, who traffic at this port, are 
said to bring in a great deal into the duke's coffers. 
Another advantage, which may be of great use to 
him, is, that at five or six days' warning he might 
find credit in this town for very large sums of money, 
which no other prince in Italy can pretend to. I 
need not take notice of the reputation that this port 
gives him among foreign princes^ but there is one 
benefit arising from it, which, though never thrown 
into the account, is doubtless very considerable. It 
is well known how the Pisans and Florentines long 
regretted the loss of their ancient liberty, and their 
subjection to a family that some of them thought 
themselves equal to in the flourishing times of their 
commonwealths. The town of Leghorn has acci- 
dentally done what the greatest fetch of politics 
would have found difficult to have brought about; 
for it has almost unpeopled Pisa» if we compare it 
with what it was formerly, and every day lessens 
the number of the inhabitants of Florence. This 
does not only weaken those places, but at the same 
time turns many of the busiest spirits from their old 
ftotions of honour and liberty to the thoughts of 



184 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

traffic and merchandise: and as men engaged in a 
road of thriving are no friends to changes and revo- 
lutions, they are at present worn into a habit of sub- 
jection^ and push all their pursuits another way. It 
is no wonder^ therefore^ that the great duke has 
such apprehensions of the pope's making Civita 
Vecchia a free port, which may in time prove so 
very prejudicial to Leghorn. It would be thought 
an improbable story, should I set down the several 
methods that are commonly reported to have been 
made use of during the last pontificate, to put a 
stop to this design. The great duke's money was 
so well bestowed m the conclave, that several of the 
cardinals dissuaded the pope from the undertakings 
and at last turned all his thoughts upon the little 
port which he made at Antium, near Nettuno. The 
chief workmen that were to have conveyed the 
water to Civita Vecchia were bought off, and when 
a poor capuchin, who was thought proof against all 
bribes, had undertaken to carry on the work, he 
died a little after he had entered upon it. The 
present pope, however, who is very well acquainted 
^vith the secret history and the weakness of his pre- 
decessor, seems resolved to bring the project to its 
perfection. He has already been at vast charges in 
nnishing the aqueduct, and had some hopes that, if 
the war should drive our £nglish merchants from 
Sicily and Naples, they would settle here. His 
holiness has told some English gentlemen, that those 
of our nation should have the greatest privileges (^ 
any but the subjects of the church. One of our 
countrymen, who makes a good figure at Rome, told 
me the pope has this design extremely at his heart ; 
but that he fears the English will suffer nothing 
like a resident or consul in his dominions ; though 



SIENNA, LEGHORN, PISA. 185 

at the same time He hoped the business might as 
well be transacted by one that had no public charac- 
ter. This gentleman has so busied himself in the 
affair^ that he has offended the French and Spanish 
cardinals, insomuch that cardinal Janson refused to 
see him when he would have made his apology for 
what he had said to the pope on this subject. There 
is one great objection to Civita Vecchia, that the air 
of the place is not wholesome ; but this, they say, 
proceeds from want of inhabitants, the air of Leg- 
nom having been worse than this before the town 
was well peopled. 

The great profits which have accrued to the duke 
of Florence from his free port, have set several of 
the states of Italy on the same project. The most 
likely to succeed in it would be the Genoese, who 
lie more convenient than the Venetians, and have a 
more inviting form of government than that of the 
church or that of Florence. But as the port of 
Genoa is so very ill guarded against storms, that no 
privileges can tempt the merchants from Leghorn 
into it, so dare not the Genoese make any other of 
their ports free, lest it should draw to it most of 
their commerce and inhabitants, and by consequence 
ruin their chief city. 

From Leghorn I went to Pisa^ where there is still 
the shell of a great city, though not half furnished 
with inhabitants. The great church, baptistery, 
and leaning tower are very well worth seeing, and 
are built after the same &ncy with the cathedral of 
Sienna. Half a day's journey more brought me into 
the republic of Lucca. 



r3 



186 REMARKS 01^ ITALr. 



THE REPUBLIC OF LUCCA. 

It is very pleasant to see how the small territories 
of this little republic are caltivated to the best ad-- 
vantage^ so that one cannot find the least spot of 
ground that is not made to contribute its utmost to 
the owner. In all the inhabitants there appears an 
air of cheerfulness and plenty, not often to be met 
with in those of the countries which lie about them. 
There is but one gat^ for strangers to enter at, that 
it may be known what numbers of them are in 
the town. Over it is written^ in letters of gold> 
Libertas. 

This republic is shut up in the great duke's domi- 
nions, who at present is very much incensed against 
it, and seems to threaten it with the fate of 
Florence, Pisa, and Sienna. The occasion is as 
follows. 

The Lucquese plead prescription for hunting in 
one of the duke's rorests, that lies upon their An- 
tlers, which about two years since was strictly 
forbidden them, the prince intending to preserve 
the game for his own pleasure. Two or three 
sportsmen of the republic, who had the hardiness to 
offend against the prohibition, were seized, and kept 
in a neighbouring prison. Their countrymen, to 
the number^ of threescore, attacked the place where 
they were kept in custody, and rescued them. The 
great duke reaemands his prisoners, and, as a farther 
satisfaction, would have the governor of the town, 
where the threescore assailants had combined toge-* 
ther, delivered into his hands; but receiving only 
excuses, he resolved to do himself justice. Accord- 
ingly he ordered all the Lucquese to be seized that 



THE REPUBLIC OF LUCCA. 187 

were found on a market-day in one of his frontier 
towns. These amounted to fourscore^ among whom 
were persons of some consequence in the republic. 
They are now in prison at Florence^ and^ as it is 
said^ treated hardly enough^ for there are fifteen of 
the number dead within less than two years. The 
kinc of Spam^ who is protector of the common- 
wecdth* receired information from the great duke of 
what had passed, and approved of his proceedings, 
-with orders to the Lucquese> by his governor of 
Milan, to give a proper satisfaction. The republic, 
thinking themselves ill used by their protector, as 
they say at Florence, have sent to prince Eugene to 
desire the emperor's protection, with an ofier of 
winter-quarters, as it is said, for four thousand Oer- 
•mans. The great duke rises on them in his de- 
mands, and will not be satisfied with less than a 
hundred thousand crowns, and a solemn embassy to 
beg pardon for the past, and promise amendment for 
the future. Thus stands the affair at present, that 
may end in the ruin of the commonwealth, if the 
French succeed in Italy. It is pleasant, however, 
to hear the discourse of the common people of Lucca, 
who are firmly persuaded that one Lucquese can 
beat five Florentines, who are grown low spirited, as 
they pretend, by the great duke's oppressions, and 
have nothing worth fighting for. They say they 
can bring into the field twenty or thirty thousand 
fightins men, all ready to sacrifice their lives for 
their bberty. They have a good quantity of arms 
and ammunition, but few horse. It must be owned 
these people are more happy, at least in imagination, 
than the rest of their neighbours, because they think 
themselves so : though such a chimerical happiness 
is not peculiar to republicans; for we find tne sub- 



188 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

jects of the most absolute prince in Europe are as 
proud of their monarch as the Lucquese of being 
subject to none. Should the French affairs prosper 
in Italy^ it is possible the great duke may bargain 
for the republic of Lucca, by the help of his great 
treasures, as his predecessOTS did formerly with the 
emperor for that of Sienna. The great dukes have 
never yet attempted anvthing on Lucca, as not only 
fearing the arms of their protector, but because they 
are well assured, that should the Lucquese be re- 
duced to the laist extremities, they would rather 
throw themselves under the government of the 
Oenoese, or some stronger neighbour, than submit 
to a state for which they have so great an aversion. 
And the Florentines are very sensible, that it is 
much better to have a weak state within their domi- 
nions, than the branch of one as strong as them- 
selves. But should so formidable a power as that of 
the French king support them in their attempts, 
there is no government in Italy that would dare to 
interpose. This republic, for the extent of its 
dominions, is esteemed the richest and best-peopled 
state of Italy. The whole administration of the 
government passes into different hands at the end 
of every two months, which is the greatest security 
imaginable to their liberty, and wonderfully contri- 
butes to the quick despatdi of all public affairs : but 
in any exigence of state, like that they are now 
pressed with, it certainly asks a much longer time 
to conduct any design for the good of the common- 
wealth to its maturity and perfection. 



J 



FLORENCE. 189 



FLORENCE. 

I HAD the good luck to be at Florence when there 
was an opera acted^ which was the eighth that I had 
seen in Italy. I could not but smile to read the 
solemn protestation of the poet in the first page^ 
where he declares that he believes neither in the 
fates^ deities^ nor destinies; and that if he has 
made use of the words^ it is purely out of a poetical 
liberty^ and not from his real sentiments^ for that in 
all these particulars^ he believes as the holy mother 
church believes and commands : 

PROTESTA. 

Le voci fatOf deita, destino, e similif che per entro questo 
drama trovarai, son messe per ischerzo poetico, e rum per senti- 
mento vero, credendo sempre in tutto quelle, che crede, e comanda 
santa madre chiesa. 



There are some beautiful palaces in Florence; 
and as Tuscan pillars and rustic work owe their 
original to this country^ the architects always take 
care to give them a place in the sreat edifices that 
are raised in Tuscany. The duke s new palace is a 
very noble pile^ built after this manner^ which 
makes it look extremely solid and majestic. It is 
not unlike that of Luxemburg at Paris^ which was 
built by Mary of Medicis^ and for that reason, per- 
haps, the workmen fell into the Tuscan humour. I 
found in the court of this palace what I could not 
meet with anywhere in Rome. I mean an antique 
statue of Hercules lifting up Antseus from the 
earth, which I have already had occasion to speak of. 
It was found in Rome, and brought hither under 



190 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

the reign of Leo the tenth. There are abundance 
of pictures in the several apartments^ by the hands 
of the greatest masters. 

But it is the famous gallery of the old palace^ 
where are^ perhaps^ the noblest collections of curiosi- 
ties to be met with in any part of the whole world. 
The gallery itself is made in the shape of an L^ ac- 
cording to Mr. Lassel; but^ if it must needs be like 
a letter^ it resembles the Greek n most. It is 
adorned with admirable pieces of sculpture^ as well 
modern as ancient. Of the last sort I shall mention 
those that are rarest^ either for the person they 
represent or the beauty of the sculpture. Among 
the busts of the emperors and empresses there are 
these that follow, which are all very scarce, and 
some of them almost singular in their kind : Agrippa, 
Caligula, Otho, Nerva, ^lius Verus, Pertinai, Geta, 
Didius Julianus, Albinus, extremely well wrought ; 
and, what is seldom seen, in alabaster, Grordianus 
Africanus the elder, Eliogabalus, Galien the elder, 
and the younger Pupienus. I have put Agrippa 
among the emperors, because he is generally ranged 
so in sets of medals, as some that follow among the 
empresses have no other right to the company they 
are joined with. Domitia, Agrippina wife of Ger- 
manicus, Antonia, Matidia, Plotma, Mallia Scan- 
tilla, falsely inscribed under her bust Julia Severa, 
Aquilia Severa, Julia Msesa. I have generally ob- 
served at Rome, which is the great magazine of 
these antiquities, that the same heads which are rare 
in medals are also rare in marble ; and, indeed, one 
may commonly assign the same reason for both, 
which was the shortness of the emperors* reigns, 
that did not give the workmen time to make many 
of their figures ; and as the shortness of their reigns 



FLORENCE. 191 

was generally occasioned by the advancement of a 
rival, it is no wonder that nobody worked on the 
figure of a deceased emperor, when his enemy was 
on the throne. This observation, however, does not 
always hold. An Agrippa or Caligula, for example, 
is a common coin, but a very extraordinary bust ; 
and a Tiberius a rare coin, but a common bust, 
which one would the more wonder at, if we consider 
the indignities that were offered to this emperor's 
statues after his death. The Tiberius in Tiberim is 
a known instance. 

Among the busts of such emperors as are common 
enough, there are several in the gallery that deserve 
to be taken notice of for the excellence of the sculp- 
ture, as those of Augustus, Vespasian, Adrian, 
Marcus Aurelius, Lucius Verus, Septimius Severus, 
Caracalla, Geta. There is in the same gallery a 
beautiful bust of Alexander the Great, casting up 
his face to heaven, with a noble air of grief or dis- 
contentedness in his looks. I have seen two or three 
antique busts of Alexander in the same air and pos- 
ture, and am apt to think the sculptor had in his 
thoughts the conqueror's weeping for new worlds, or 
some other the like circumstance of his history. 
There is also, in porphyry, the head of a faun, and 
of the god Pan. Among the entire figures I took 
particular notice of a vestal Virgin, with the holy 
fire burning before her. This statue, I think, may 
decide that notable controversy among the anti- 
quaries, whether the vestals, after having received 
the tonsure, ever suffered their hair to come again, 
for it is here fiill grown, and gathered under the 
veil. The brazen figure of the consul, with the ring 
on his finger, reminded me of Juvenal's majoris pon- 
dera gemmas. There is another statue in brass, sup- 



192 REMABKS ON ITALY. 

posed to be of Apollo^ with this modem inscription 
on the pedestal, which I most confess I do not know 
what to make of : Ut potui hue veni musts etjratre 
relicio. I saw in the same gallerj the famous figure 
of the Wild Boar, the Gladiator, the Nardssus, the 
Cnpid and Psyche, the Flora, with some modem 
statues that several others have described. Among 
the antique figures, there is a fine one of Morpheus 
in touchstone. I haye always obseryed, that this 
god is represented by the ancient statuaries under 
Uie figure of a boy asleep, with a bundle of poppy in 
his hand. I at first took it for a Cnpid, tUl I had 
taken notice that it had neither bow nor quiver. I 
suppose doctor Lister has been guilty of the same 
mistake in the reflections he makes on what he calls 
the sleeping Cnpid with poppy in his hands : 



Q^a^ia namque 



Corpora nudomm tubttlA pingwUur Amorum 
Talis erat: ted, nefaciat diserimina cuUus, 
Ami Jktttc add* leva atU Ulit deme Pharetras, 

Ov. Met. lib. 10. 

Such are the Cvpids that in paint we view ; 
But that the lik^Mss may be nicely troe, 
A knden quiver to his shoulders tie. 
Or bid the Cupids lay their qniyeis by. 

It is probable they chose to represent the god of 
sleep under the figure of a boy, contrary to all our 
modem designers, because it is that age which has 
its repose the least broken by cares and anxieties. 
Statins, in his celetoited invocation of sleep, ad- 
dresses himself to him under the same figure : 

Crvmne quo nteruijuvems, placidiniwu divdan, 
Quove errore muter, donit ut tolta egerem, 
Somme, tuit? taeet omne peetu, volueretque,fer^eque, etc, 

SiLv. lib. 5. 



FLORENCE. • 193 

Tell me, thou est of gods, thou gentle youth. 
Tell me my sad ofience ; that only I, 
While hnsh'd at ease thy drowsy subjects lie. 
In the dead silence of the night complain. 
Nor taste the blessings of thy peaceful reign. 

I never saw any figure of Sleep that was not of 
black marble^ which has probably some relation to 
the night> which is the proper season for rest. I 
should not have made this remark^ but that I re* 
member to have read in one of the ancient authors^ 
that the Nile is generally represented in stone of 
this colour, because it flows from the country of the 
Ethiopians ; which shows us that the statuaries had 
sometimes an eye to the person they were to repre- 
sent, in the choice they made of their marble. 
There are still at Rome some of these black statues 
of the Nile, which are cut in a kind of touchstone : 

Usque eohratis amnis devesus ab IndUm 

ViBo. Georg. 4. de Nilo. 

At one end of the gallery stand two antique 
marble pillars, curiously wrought with the figures of 
the old Roman arms and instruments of war. After 
a full survey of the gallery, we were led into four or 
five chambers of curiosities that stand on the side of 
it. The first was a cabinet of antiquities, made up 
chiefly of idols, talismans, lamps, and hierogl3rphics. 
I saw nothing in it that I was not before acquainted 
with> except the four following figures in brass: 

I. A little image of Juno Sispita, or Sospita, 
which, perhaps, is not to be met with anywhere else 
but on medab. She is clothed in a goat's skin, the 
horns sticking out above her head. The right arm 
is broken, that probably supported a shield, and the 

VOL. IV. 8 



194 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

left a little defaced^ thongh one may see it held 
somethine in its grasp formerly. The feet are bare. 
I remember Tufly's description of this goddess in 
the following words : Hercle inquit qudm tibi illam 
nostram SospUam quam in nunquam ne in Samniis 
videSy nisi cum peue Caprind, cum hastd, cum scu" 
tulo, cum calceolis repandis, 

II. An antique model of the famous Laocoon and 
his two sons, that stands in the Belvidera at Rome. 
This is the more remarkable, as it is entire in those 
parts where the statue is maimed. It was by the 
help of this model that Bandinelli finished his ad- 
mirable copy of the Laocoon, whidi stands at one 
end of this gallery. 

III. An Apollo, or Amphion. I took notice of 
this little figure for the singularity of the instru- 
ment, which I never before saw in ancient sculpture. 
It is not unlike a violin, and played on after the 
same manner. I doubt, however, whether this figure 
be not of a later date than the rest, by the meanness 
of the workmanship. 

IV. A Corona Radialis, with only eight spikes to 
it. Every one knows the usual number was twelve; 
some say, in allusion to the signs of the zodiac, and 
others, to the labours of Hercules : 

Jngenti mole Latinus 



Quadrifugo vehitur curru ; cui tempara circum 
Aurati bis sex radii fulgentia cinguntf 

Solis avi specimen, _ 

ViEG. iEn. 12. 

Four steeds the chariot of Latinus bear : 

Twelve golden beams around his temples play. 

To mark his lineage from the god of day. Dryde % . 

The two next chambers are made up of several 



FLORENCE; 195 

artificial cariosities in ivory^ amber, crystal, marble, 
and precious stones, which all voyage writers are 
-full of. In the chamber that is shown last stands 
the celebrated Venus of Medicis. The statue seems 
much less than the life, as being perfectly naked, 
and in company with others of a larger make : it is, 
notwithstanding, as big as the ordinary size of a 
woman, as I concluded from the measure of her 
wrist ; for from the bigness of any one part it is easy 
to guess at all the rest, in a figure of such nice pro- 
portions. The softness of the flesh, the delicacy of 
the shape, air, and posture, and the correctness of 
design in this statue, are inexpressible. I have 
several reasons to believe that the. name of the 
sculptor on the pedestal is not so old as the statue. 
This figure of Venus put me in mind of a speech 
«he makes in one of the Greek epigrams : 

rvuvrjv olde Udpi£ fu Kai Avxtcriyc "^at "ASiovic* 
Toitg Tpeig olda yiovovg, npa^irsX?}^ ^^ 7r60«v; 

Anchises, Paris, and Adonis too 
Have seen me naked, and exposM to view ; 
All these I frankly own without denying : 
But where has this Praxiteles been prying ? 

There is another Venus in the same circle, that 
would make a good figure anywhere else. There 
are among the old Roman statues, several of Venus 
in different postures and habits, as there are many 

Particular figures of her made after the same design, 
fancy it is not hard to find among them some that 
were made after the three statues of this goddess 
which Pliny mentions. In the same chamber is the 
Roman slave whetting his knife and listening, 
which^ from the shoulders upwards, is incomparable. 



196 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

The two wreatlen are in the same room. I obwrred 
here, likewise, a very carions btut (tf Amuns Vera^ 
the janng son of Marcoa Aurelios, who died at nine 
yean of age. I hare >een several other busts of him 
at Rome, though his medals are exceeding rare. 

The great duke has ordered a large chamba to be 
fitted up for old inscriptions, tims, mcHiainenta, and 
the like sets of antiquities. I was shown sererat at 
them which are not yet put np. There are the two 
iamous inscriptions that give so great a light to tbe 
histories of Appius, who made the highway, and of 
Fabius the dictator; they contain a short account of 
the honours they paasea through, and Uie actions 
they performed. I saw, too, the busts of Tranqail- 
liae, mother to Gordianns Fiua, and of Quintma 
Herennius, son to Trajan Decius, which are ex- 
tremely valuable for their rarity ; and a beautiful old 
figure made after the celebrated Hermaphrodite in 
tbe Villa Boi^hese. 1 saw nothing that haa not 
been observed by several others in the Argenteria, 
the tabernacle of St. Lawrence's chapel, and the 
chamber of painters. The chapel of St. Lawrence 
will be, perhaps, the most costly piece <^ work on 
the bee of the earth when completed ; but it ad- 
vances GO very slowly, that it is not impossible but 
tlie lamily of Medicis may be extinct faeftve their 
burial plaM is finiabed. 

The great duke has lived many years separate 
from the duchess, who is at present in the court of 
France, and intends there to end her days. The 
cmidinal, his brother, is old and inlirm, and could 
never be induced to resign bis purple for the uncer- 
tain prospect of giving an heir to tbe dokedom of 
Tuacan^. Tbe great prince baa been married several 
TMn without any duldren ; and notwithstandifig all 



wmmmmmmm 



FLORENCE. 197 

the precautions in the world were taken for the mar- 
riage of the prince his younger brother (as the find- 
ing out a lady for him who was in the yiffour and 
flower of her age^ and had fdven mcurks of her fruit* 
Ailness by a former husband) they have all hitherto 
proved unsuccessful. There is a branch of the family 
of Medids in Naples : the head of it has been owned 
as a kinsman by the great duke, and it is thought 
will succeed to his dominions, in case the princes, 
his sons, die childless,* though it is not impossible 
but in such a conjecture, the commonwealths that 
are thrown under the great dutchy may make some 
efforts towards the recovery of their ancient liberty. 
I was in the library of manuscripts belonging to 
St. Lawrence, of whidi there is a printed catalogue. 
I looked into the Virgil which disputes its antiquity 
with that of the Vatican. It wants the lUe ego 
qui quondam, etc. and the twenty-two lines in the 
second ^neid, beginning at Jamque adeo super unus 
eram, ^I must confess I always thought this pas- 
sage left out with a great deal of judgment by Tucca 
and Varius, as it seems to contradict a part in the 
sixth Maeidi, and represents the hero in a passion ; 
that is, at least, not at all becoming the greatness of 
his character. Besides, I think tibe apparition of 
Vbnus comes in very properly to draw him away 
immediately after the sight of Priam s murder ; for, 
without such a machine to take him off, I cannot see 
how the hero could, with honour, leave Neoptolemus 
triumphant and Priam unrevenced. But since 
VirgiFs friends thought fit to let drop this incident 
of Helen, I wonder they would not blot out, or alter, 
a line in Venus's speech, that has a relation to the 
rencounter, and comes in improperly without it : 

s3 



198 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

Non tibi Tyndaridisfaeiet invita Lactefut, 

Culpatusve Paris, ^n. 2. 

Florence for modem statues^ I thinks excels even 
Rome; but these I shall pass over in silence, that I 
may not transcribe out of others. 

The way from Florence to Bologna runs over 
several ranges of mountains, and is the worst road, I 
believe, of any over the Appenines; for this was 
my third time of crossing them. It gave me a lively 
idea of SOius Italicuss description of Hannibal s 
march: 

QuoquB magU svbierejugo, at^ue, evaders nisi, 
Erexere gradum, creseit labor, Ardua supra . 
Sese aperitftssis, et nascitur altera moles. Lib. 3. 

From steep to steep the troops advanc'd with pain, 
Ib hopes at last the topmost cliff to ^ain : 
But still by new ^ents the mountain grew. 
And a fresh toil presented to their view. 

I shall conclude this chapter with the descriptions 
which the Latin poets have given us of the Appe- 
nines. We may observe in them all the remarluible 
qualities of this prodigious length of mountains, that 
run from one extremity of Italy to the other, and 
give rise to an incredible variety of rivers that water 
this delightful country : 

Nuhifer Appenninus, Ov. Met. lib. 2. 



Qui Siculum porrectus adusque Pelorum. 



Finibus ab Ligurum populos complectitur omnes 
Italia f geminumque lotus stringentia Umge 
Utraque perpetuo discriminat tsquora tractu, 

Claud, de Sexto Cons. Hon. 



Mole nivali 



Aljnbus gquatum tolUns caput Appenninus. 

SiL. Ital. lib. 2. 



FLORENCE. 199 

Horrehat glade ioxa inter Ivhrica, summo 
Pin^erum calo mitcem caput, Appenninus : 
Conaiderat nix alta trabes, et vertice ceUo 
Canus apex ttructd turgehat ad astra pruind, 

SiL. iTikL. lib. 4. 

Umbrorii mediam qtui collibiu Appenninus 
Erigit Italiam, nulla qud vertice tellus 
Altiut intumuitf propiu8qv£ accesiit Olympo, 
Mont inter geminat mediut $e porrigit undat 
Infemi Muperique maris : collesque coercent 
Mine Tyrrhena vado frangentes 4equora Pisa, 
JlUne Dalmaticis obnoxiajfltmtihus Ancan, 
Fontibus hie vcutis immensos concipit amnes, 
Fluminaqu£ in gemini spargit diwrtia ponti, 

LucAN, lib. 2. 

In pomp the shady Appenines arise. 

And lift th' aspiring nation to the skies ; 

No land like Italy erects the sight 

By such a vast ascent, or swells to such a height : 

Her numerous states the tow'ring hills divide, 

And see the billows rise on either side ; 

At Pisa here the range of mountains ends. 

And here to high Ancona's shores extends : 

In their dark womb a thousand rivers lie. 

That with continued streams the double sea supply. 



BOLOGNA, MODENA, PARMA, TURIN, ETC. 

After a very tedious journey over the Appenines^ 
we at last came to the nver that runs at the foot of 
them, and was formerly called the little Rhine. Fol- 
lowing the course of this river, we arrived in a short 
time at Bologna : 

— — Parvique Bcnonia Rheni. Sil. Ital. 8. 

Bologna watered by the petty Rhine. 

We here quickly felt the difference of the northern 
from the southern side of the mountains, as well in 



200 REMARKS ON ITALY 

the Qoldness of the air, as in the hadness of the wine. 
This town is famoos for the ridiness of the soil that 
lies ahout it, and the magnificence of its convents. 
It is likewise esteemed the third in Italy for pic- 
tures, as having been the school of the Lombard 
painters. I saw in it three rarities of difiTerent 
Kinds, which pleased me more than any other shows 
of the nkce. The first was an authentic silver 
medal or the younger Brutus, in the hands of an emi- 
nent antiquary. One may see the character of the 
person in the features of the face, which is exqui- 
sitely well cut. On the reverse is the cap of liberty, 
with a dagger on each side of it, subscribed Id. Mar. 
for the i^ of March, the famous date of Caesar's 
murder. The second was a picture of Rafael's in 
St. Giouanni in Monte. It is eztr^nely well pre- 
served, and represents St. Cecilia with an instru- 
ment of music in her hands. On one side of her 
are the figures of St. Paul and St. John ; and on 
the other, of Mary Magdalene and St. Austin. 
There is something wondeorfully divine in the airs of 
this picture. I cannot forbear mentioning, for my 
third curiosity, a new staircase that strangers are 
generally carried to see, where the easiness of the 
ascent within so small a compass, the disposition of 
the lights, and the convenient landing, are admira- 
bly well contrived. The wars of Italy, and the sea- 
son of the year, made me pass through the dutchies 
of Modena, Parma, and Savoy with more haste than 
I would have done at another time. The soil of 
Modena and Parma is very rich and well cultivated. 
The palaces of the princes are magnificent, but 
neither of them is yet finished. We procured a 
licence of the duke of Parma to enter the theatre 
and gallery, which deserve to be seen as well as any 



•»»«»• * * * 




BOLOGNA, MODENA, £tc. 201 

thins of that nature in Italy. The theatre la, I. 
think, the most spadous of any I ever aaw^ and at 
the same time so admirably well oontriyed, that from 
the very depth of the stage the lowest sound may be 
heard distinctly to the farthest part of the audience, 
as in a whispering place ; and yet if you raise your 
voioe as high as you please, there is nothing like an 
echo to cause in it the least confusion. The gallery 
is hung with a numerous collection of pictures, all 
done by eelebrated hands. On one side of the gal- 
lery is a laige room adorned with inlaid tables, 
cabinets, works in amber, and other pieces of great 
art and value. Out of this we were led into another 
great room, furnished with old inscriptions, idols, 
busts, medals, and the like antiquities. I could have 
spent a day with great satisfaction in this apartment, 
but had only time to pass my eye over the medals, 
which are in great number, and many of them very 
rare. The scarcest of all is a Pescennius Niger on a 
medallion well preserved. It was coined at Antioch, 
where this emperor trifled away his time till he 
lost his life and empire. The reverse is a Dea 
Solus. There are two of Otho, the reverse a Sera- 
pis ; and two of Messalina and Poppsea in middle 
brass, the reverses of the emperor Giaudius. I saw 
two medallions of Plotina and Matidia, the reverse 
to each a Pietas ; with two medals of Pertinax, the 
reverse of one Foia Decennalia, and of the other 
Diis Custodibug; and another of Gh>rdianus Africa- 
nns, the reverse I have forgot. 

The principalities of Modena and Parma are 
much about the same extent ; and have each of them 
two large towns, besides a great number of little 
villages. The duke of Parma, however, is much 
richer than the duke of Modena* Their subjects 



202 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

wonld live in ereat plenty amidst so rich and well 
cultivated a soiH were not the taxes and impositions 
so yery* exorbitant; for the courts are much too 
splendid and magnificent for the territories that lie 
aoout them, and one cannot but be amazed to see 
such a profusion of wealth laid out in coaches, trap- 
pings, tables, cabinets, and the like precious toys, 
m which there are few princes in Europe who equal 
them, when at the same time they have not had the 
generosity to make bridges over the rivers of their 
countries for the convenience of their subjects, as 
well as strangers, who are forced to pay an unrea- 
sonable exaction at every ferry, upon tne least rising 
of the waters. A man might well expect, in these 
small governments, a much greater regulation of 
affairs, for the ease and benefit of the people, than 
in large overgrown states, where the rules of justice, 
beneficence, and mercy may be easily put out of 
their course, in passing through the hands of depu- 
ties, and a long subordination of officers. And it 
would certainly be for the good of mankind, to have 
all the mighty empires and monarchies of the world 
cantoned out into petty states and principalities, 
that, like so many large families, might lie under 
the eye and observation of their proper governors ; 
so that the care of the prince might extend itself to 
every individual person under his protection. But 
since such a general scheme can never be brought 
about, and if it were it would quickly be destroyed 
by the ambition of some particular state aspiring 
dbove the rest, it happens very ill at present to be 
born under one of these petty sovereigns, that will 
be still endeavouring, at his subjects' cost, to equal 
the pomp and grandeur of greater princes, as well as 
to outvie those of his own rank* 



BOLOGNA, MODENA, etc. 203 

For this reason there are no people in the world 
who live with more ease and prosperity than the 
subjects of little commonwealths^ as on the contrary 
there are none who suffer more under the grievances 
of a hard government, than the subjects of little 

grindpalities. I left the road of Milan on my rieht 
and, iiaving before seen that city, and after having 
passed through Asti, the frontier town of Savoy, I 
at last came within sight of the Po, which is a fine 
river even at Turin, though within six miles of its 
source. This river has been made the scene of two 
or three poetical stories. Ovid has chosen it out to 
throw his Phaeton into it, after all the smaller rivers 
had been dried up in the conflagration. 

I have read some botanical critics, who tell us the 
poets have not rightly followed the traditions of an- 
tiquity, in metamorphosing the sisters of Phaeton 
into poplars, who ought to have been turned into 
larch trees ; for that it is this kind of tree that sheds 
a gum, and is commonly found on the banks of the 
Po. The change of Cycnus into a swan, which 
doses up the msasters of Phaeton's family, was 
wrought on the same place where the sisters were 
turned into trees. The descriptions that Virgil and 
Ovid have made of it cannot be sufficiently admired. 

Claudian has set off his description of the Erida- 
nus, with all the poetical stories that have been 
made of it : 

-IIU caput placidit sublime fluentis 



Extulit, et totis lucefn spargentia ripis 
Aurea roranti miciwrunt comua vultu, 
Non illi madidum vulgaris arundine crinem 
Velat honos, rami caput umbravere virentes 
Heliadum, totisquefluunt electra capillis. 
Palla tegit latos humeros, curruque patemo 
Intextus Phaeton glaucos incendit amictus : 



ttPlf^KBt OH HALT. 



Clan KM i^^mm -w^. 

Ci*vni^, D« ScxM Cob 
S* bad ibna <&■ Ah* W gotir nai'ii. 
That iM tlK Muad ibna iIjimIj hnsht, 



Tba d^mg a«nat ud dH ifc«Ji it Ag»'d, 
Aad ctai wbok &bfa bt dH DOBde efanr'd : 
Bomk hB miB am lopnmd fid, 
Widi ,M> «Bteaiik-ii Md inibMB ikin. 
T^r Ta^ b* *■ b^^ ^ ' /I. 

' ■" »•»*• " tiJfaad^iw'd. 
dK^ af his pkf sbi«U bO. 

llll[i»B WTOM his alt. 
7 at CjKmaa ihiiMi : 
■ H ^mmim^ *■«■> "**P ^ wM'ij BglB ; 
Tba bvnof chraM sd Aa ckviMeB. 
la bn^tit BiMMi ami hi> hum hi[iiiii . 
Wlnla in a track ^ Sght tte walai raa, 
ThM waih d ite bad; «f U> U^Md MB. 

TW niw A gH«*»a^w totlKcUefMnet of 
Tann, wfcieb fiNMb A* dab s palaee, and, when 
fnhed, wis be «K aT tke noblest ia Italj ftr its 
li^lltL. TWi« k •■» ornnmatBe in this dty that 
I mnv ifci miA b any other, and iriiidi makes 



BOLOGNA, MODENA, etc. J05 

some amends for the badness of the pavement. By 
the help of a riyer that runs on the upper side of the 
town^ they can convey a little stream of water 
through all the most considerable streets^ which 
serves to cleanse the gutters^ and carries away all 
the filth that is si^ept into it. The manager opens 
his sluice every nighty and distributes the water into 
what quarters of the town he pleases. Besides the 
ordinary convenience that arises from it^ it is of 
great use when a fire chances to break out^ for at a 
few minutes' warning they have a little river running 
by the very wall of the house that is burning. The 
court of Turin is reckoned the most splendid and 
polite of any in Italy ; but by reason of its being in 
mournings I could not see it in its magnificence. 
The common people of this state are more exas- 
perated against the French than even the rest of the 
Italians : for the great mischiefs they have suffered 
from them are still fresh upon their memories ; and^ 
notwithstanding this interval of peace^ one may 
easily trace out the several marches which the 
French armies have made through their country^ by 
the ruin and desolation they have left behind them. 
I passed through Piedmont and Savoy^ at a time 
when the duke was forced^ by the necessity of his 
affairs^ to be in alliance with the French. 

I came directly from Turin to Geneva^ and had a 
very easv journey over mount Cennis^ though about 
the beginning of December^ the snows having not 
yet fallen. On the top of this high mountain is a 
large plain^ and in the midst of the plain a beautiful 
lake^ which would be very extraordinary were there 
not several mountains in the neighbourhood rising 
Qver it. The inhabitants thereabouts pretend that 

VOL. IV. T 



206 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

it is unfathomable^ and I question not but the 
waten of it fill up a deep valley^ before they come 
to a level with the surfiace of the plain. It is well 
stocked with trouts^ though they say it is covered 
with ice three quarters of the year. 

There is nothine in the natural face of Italy that 
ia more delightful to a traveller, than the several 
lakes which are dispersed up and down among the 
many breaks and hoUows of the Alps and Appe« 
nines* For as these vast heaps of mountains are 
thrown together with so much ur^ularity and con- 
fusion, they form a great variety of hollow bottoms, 
that often lie in the figure of so many artificial 
basins ; where, if any fountains chance to rise, they 
natnraUy spread themselves into lakes before they 
can fina any issue for their waters. The ancient 
Romans took a ereat deal of pains to hew oat a 
passage for these lakes to discharge themselves into 
some neighbouring river, for the bettering of the air, 
or the recovering of the soil that lay underneath 
them. The draining of the Fucinus, by the emperor 
Claudius, with the prodigious multitude of spectators 
who attended it, and the famous Naumachia and 
splendid entertainment which were made upon it 
before the sluices were opened, is a known piece of 
history. In all our journey through the Alps, as 
well when we climbed as when we descended them, 
we had still a river running along with the road, 
that probably at first occasioned the discovery of this 
passage. I shall end this chapter with a description 
of the Alps, as I did the last with those of the 
Appenines. The poet, perhaps, would not have 
taken notice, that there is no spring nor summer on 
these mountains^ but because in this respect the 



BOLOGNA, MODENA, etc. 207 

Alps are quite different from the Appenines> which 
have as delightfiil green spots among them as any in 
Italy: 

Cuncta gelu candque atemum grandine tecta, 
Atque 4£vi glaciem cohibent : riget ardvM numtu 
Mtherufacies^ surgentique obvia Phaebo 
Duratas nescit fiammu mollire pruiruu. 
Quantum Tartareus regni pallentis hiatus 
Ad manes tmos atque atr^e sterna paludit 
A tuperd tellure patet : tarn hnga per auras 
Engitur tellus^ et cxlum intercipit umbrd. 
N^lum ver usquam, nuUique ^tstatis honores. 
Solajugk habitat diris, sedesque tuetur 
Perpetuus deformis hyems : ilia undiqv£ nubes 
Hue atras agit, et mixtos cum grandine nimbos* 
Jam cunctifiatus ventiquefurentia regna 
Alpind posuere domo. Caligat in altis 
Obtutus saxis, abeuntque in nubila montes, 

SiL. Ital* lib. 3. 

Stiff with eternal ice, and bid in snow. 
That fell a thousand centuries ago, 
Tbe mountain stands ; nor can the rising sun 
Un£x her frosts, and teach them bow to run : 
Deep as the dark infernal waters lie 
From the bright regions of tbe cheerful sky. 
So far the proucl ascending rocks invade 
Heav'ns upper realms, and cast a dreadful shade : 
No spring nor summer on tbe mountain seen, 
•Smiles with ^j fruits, or with delightfiil green ; 
But hoary winter, unadorn'd and bare^ 
Dwells in the dire retreat, and freezes there; 
There she assembles all her blaekest storms. 
And the rude hail in rattling tempests forms ; 
Thither the loud tempestuous winds resort. 
And on tbe mountain keep their boistVous court. 
That in thick sbow'rs her rocky summit shrouds. 
And darkens all the broken view with clouds. 



BEIURKS OS ITALY. 



GCXETA AND THE LAKE. 

Ncjui St. Jnlim in Samf the Alps begin to a^aj^ 
iIm iMilm oa aO tides, uid open into a rast CJrciut 
•f ^rwnd, whicb, in respect of the other puts of the 
AIp», mr pM» for a plain diampaign coDatrT- This 
extcM at lan^ with the Lenoan lake, woold make 
lae ef the prettiest and moet defensible dominions 
in Ennipe, wns it all thnnm into s single state, and 
had Geaen fiv hs metropolB. Bat there are three 
paw e« fil l neighbooTs who diride anxvig them the 
ptaXtA paxt of this finitfid countr}-- The duke of 
SuvoT hM the Chablais, and all the fields thut lie 
herood the Arre, as far as to the Ednse. The king 
of France » master of the whole coantry of Gex ; 
And the cnnton of Bone omes in for that of Vaod. 
(n»m and its little territories lie in the heart of 
these three stales. The greatest part of the town 
stands upon a hill, and has its views bounded on all 
sides br sereral rsngvs of mountains, which are, 
bowerer, at so great a distance, that ther leave open 
4 wenderful rarietv (tf beantifnl prospects. The 
sitoatiaB of these mountains has some particnlar 
elfects on the cMuitiT which thej indeee. As first, 
tber cover it from all winds, except the sooth and 
ourth. It B to the last of these winds that the iu- 
lubitants of Genera ascribe the bealthfiilness of 
thMT air; for as the Alps surround them on all 
sides, they form a vast kind of basin, where there 
would be a constant stagnation of vapours, the 
country being so well watered, did not the north 
wind pot tlwm in motkai, and scatter them from 
time to time. Another effect the Alps bare (u 



GENEVA AND THE LAKE. 209 

^Geneva is^ that the sun here rises later and sets 
sooner than it does to other places of the same lati- 
tude. I have often observed that the tops of the 
neighbouring mountains have been covered with 
light above half an hour after the sun is down in 
respect of those who live at Geneva. These moun- 
tains likewise very much increase their summer 
heats^ and make up an horizon that has something 
in it very singular and agreeable. On one side 
you have the long tract of hills that goes under the 

, name of mount Jura^ covered with vineyards and 
pasturage ; and on the other^ huge precipices of naked 
rocks rising up in a thousand odd figures^ and cleft 
in some places^ so as to discover high mountains of 
snow that lie several leagues behind them. Towards 
the south the hills rise more insensibly^ and leave 
the eye a vast uninterrupted prospect for many 
miles. But the most beautiful view of all is the 

. lake^ and the borders of it that lie north of the 
town. 

This lake resembles a sea in the colour of its 
waters^ the storms that are raised on it^ and the 
ravage it makes on its banks. It receives too a dif- 
ferent name from the coasts it washes^ and in sum- 
mer has something like an ebb and llow^ which 
arises from the melting of the snows that fall into it 
more copiously at noon than at other times of the 
day. It has five different states bordering on it, the 
kingdom of France and the dutchy of Savoy, the 
canton of Berne, the bishopric of Sion, and the re- 
public of Geneva. I have seen papers fixed up in 
the canton of Berne, with this magnificent preface : 
*^ Whereas we have been informed of several abuses 
committed in our ports and harbours on the lake," 
etc. 

t3 



SIO REMARKS ON ITALY. 

I made a little vfjyage ronnd the lake> and tonehed 
on the several towns that lie on its coasts; whidi 
took np near five days^ though the wind was pretty 
fiur for ns all the while. 

The right side of the lake from €reneva belongs 
to the dnke of Savoy^ and is extremely well calti-> 
▼ated. The greatest entertainment we fonnd in 
coasting it were the several prospects of woods, vine- 
yards^ meadows, and com fields, which lie on the 
borders of it, and run up all the sides of the Alps, 
where the barrenness of the rocks or the steepness 
of the ascent will suffer them. The wine, however, 
on thb side of the lakeis by no means so good as 
that on the other, as it has not so open a soil, and is 
less exposed to the sun. We here passed by Yvoire, 
^ where the duke keeps his galleys, and lodged at 
Tonon, which is the greatest town on the lake 
belonging to the Savoyard. It has four convents, 
and, they say, about six or seven thousand inha- 
bitants. The lake is here about twelve miles in 
breadth. At a little distance from Tonon stands 
BIpaille, where is a convent of Carthusians. They 
have a large forest cut out into walks, that are ex* 
tremely thick and gloomy, and very suitable to the 
genius of the inhabitants. There are vistas in it of 
a great length, that terminate upon the lake. At 
one side of the walks you have a near prospect of 
the Alps, which are broken into so many steps and 
precipices, that they fill the mind with an agreeable 
Kind of horror, and form one of the most irr^;ular 
misshapen scenes in the world. The house that is 
now in the hands of the Carthusians belonged for- 
merlv to the hermits of St. Maurice, and is feanous 
in history for the retreat of an antipope, who called 
himself Felix the fifth. He had been duke of 



GENEVA AND THE LAKE. ail 

Savoy, and> after a very glorious reign^ took on him 
the habit of a hermit^ and retired into this solitary 
spot of his dominions. His enemies will have it 
ttiat he lived here in great ease and luxury^ from 
whence the Italians to this day make use of the 
proverb^ Andare a Ripaglia, and the French^ Faire 
RipaiUe, to express a delightful kind of life. They 
say> too, that he had great managements with sevend 
ecclesiastics before he turned hermit, and that he 
did it in the view of being advanced to the ponti« 
ficate. However it was, he had not been here half a 
year before he was chosen pope by the council of 
Basil, who took upon them to depose Eugenic the 
fourth. This promised fair at first : but by the 
death of the emperor, who favoured Amadeo, and 
the resolution of Eugenic, the greatest part of the 
church threw itself under the government of their 
deposed head. Our antipope, however, was still 
supported by the council of Basil, and owned by 
Savoy, Switzerland, and a few other little states. 
This schism lasted in the church nine years, after 
which Felix voluntarily resigned his title into the 
hands of pope Nicholas the fifth, but on the follow- 
ing conditions : that Amadeo should be the first car- 
dinal in the conclave ; that the pope should always 
receive him standing, and offer him his mouth to 
kiss ; that he should be perpetual cardinal-legate in 
the states of Savoy and Switzerland, and in the 
archbishoprics of Gheneva, Sion, Bresse, etc. And 
lastly, that all the cardinals of his creation should 
be recognised by the pope. After he had made a 
""peace so acceptable to the church, and so honourable 
to himself, he spent the remainder of his life with 
great devotion at Ripaille, and died with an extra- 
ordinary reputation of sanctity. 



Sit REMARKS ON ITALY. 

At Toooo ther showed us a fountain of water 
tbat is in great esteem for its wholesomeness. They 
saj it wri^is two oonoes in a poond less than the 
same measore of the lake water, notwithstanding 
this last is Tery good to drink, and as clear as can be 
imagined. A little above Tonon is a castle and 
small garrison. The next day we saw other small 
towns on the coast of Savoy, where there is nothing 
bat misery and poverty. The nearer you come to 
the end of the lake, the mountains on each side 
grow thidcer and higher, till at last they almost 
meet. One often sees on the tops of the mountains 
several sharp rocks that stand above the rest ; for as 
these mountains have been doubtless much higher 
than they are at present, the rains have washed 
away abundance of the soil, that has left the veins 
of stone shooting out of them ; as in a decayed body 
the flesh is still fthrinlfing from the bones. The 
natural histories of Switzerland talk very much o£ 
the hH of these rocks, and the great damage they 
have sometimes done, when their foundations have 
been mouldered with age, or rent by an earthquake. 
We saw in several parts of the Alps that bordered 
upon us, vast pits ot snow, as several mountains that 
lie at a greater distance are wholly covered with it. 
I fancied the confusion of mountains and hollows, I 
here observed, furnished me with a more probable 
reason than any I have met with for those periodical 
fountains in Switzerland, which flow only at such 
particular hours of the day. For as the tops of 
these mountains cast their shadows upon one another, 
they hinder the sun*s ghining on several parts at 
such certain times, so that there are several heaps of 
snow which have the sun lying upon them two or 
three hours together, and are in the shade all the 



fir 






ffi 



^ 

£ 



GENEVA AND THE LAKE. 213 

day afterwards. If^ therefore^ it happens that any 
'particular fountain takes its rise from any of these 
reservoirs of snow, it will naturally begin to flow on 
such hours of the day as the snow begins to melt : 
but as soon as the sun leaves it aeain to freeze and 
harden, the fountain dries up, and receives no more 
supplies till about the same time the next day, 
when the heat of the sun again sets the snows a 
running that fall into the same little conduits, 
traces, and canals, and by consequence break out 
and discover themselves alwavs in the same place. 
At the very extremity of the lake the Rhone enters, 
and, when I saw it, brought along with it a prodi- 
gious quantity of water ,* the rivers and lakes of this 
country being much higher in summer than in 
winter, by reason of the melting of the snows. One 
would wonder how so many learned men could fall 
into so great an absurdity, as to believe this river 
could preserve itself unmixed with the lake till its 
going out again at Geneva, which is a course of 
many miles. It was extremely muddy at its en- 
trance when I saw it, though as clear as rock water 
at its going out. Besides that, it brought in much 
more water than it carried ofl^. The river, indeed, 

Preserves itself for about a quarter of a mile in the 
ike, but is afterwards so wholly mixed, and lo6t 
with the waters of the lake, that one discovers 
nothing like a stream till within about a quarter of 
a mile of Geneva. From the end of the lake to the 
source of the Rhone is a valley of about four days' 
journey in length, which gives the name of Vallesins 
to its inhabitants, and is the dominion of the bishop 
of Sion. We lodged the second night at Ville 
Neuve, a little town in the canton of Berne, where 
we found good accommodations, and a. much greater 



314 REMAUKS ON ITALY. 

appearance of plenty than on the otiier nde of the 
lake. The next day^ having passed by the castle of 
Chillon^ we came to Versoy, another town in tlie 
canton of fieme^ where Ludlow retired after having 
kfi Oeneva and Lausanne. The magistrates of the 
town warned him out of the first by the solicitation 
of the duchess of Orleans> as the death of his friend 
Lisle made him quit the other. He probably chose 
this retreat as a place of the greatest safety^ it 
being an easy matter to know what strangers are in 
the town, by reason of its situation. The house he 
lived in has this inscription over the door : 

Omne tolumforti patria 
quia patris. 

The first part is a piece of a verse in Ovid, as the 
last is a cant of his own. He is buried in the best 
of the churches, with the following epitaph : 

8I8TB ORADUH ET KBSPICB 

Hie jftoet Edmond Ludlow An^as Natione, PnmncnsB Wilto> 
nieniit, filiat Henrid Equestris Ordinis, Senatoriaque Parlia- 
menti, cujua quoque fuit ipse membrum, Patnim stemmate 
darus et nobilis, yirtute propria Dobilior, religione protestans et 
insiffni pietate cornscus, aetatis Anno 23. Tribunus Militum, 
pauIo poet ezercitds pnator primarius. Tunc Hibernomm do- 
mitor, in pugnft intrepidus et vite prodigus, in Tictaii^ clemens 
et mansuetui, patric libertatis defensor, et notestatia arbitraris 
propu^ator acerrimus ; cujus canak ab eikiem patii& 32| annis 
eztoms, meliorique fortunk dignas apud Helvetios se recepit 
ibique aetatii Anno 73. Moriens sui desiderium relinquens 
aedea ctentas Ustos advolavit. 

Hocoe Monumentum, in perpetoam Tens et sinoene pietatis 
er^ Maritum defunctum memoriam, dicat et vovet Domina 
Elizabeth de Thomas, ejus strenua et maBstissima, tain in infor- 
tuniis quam in matrimonio consors dilectissima, quae animi 
magnitudine etvi amoris conjugalis mota eum in ezilium ad 
pbitom usque constanter secuta est Anno Dom. 16^3* 



GENEVA AND THE LAKE. 215 

Jiudlow was a constant frequenter of sermons and 
prayers^ but would never communicate with them 
either of Geneva or Vevy. Just by his monument 
IB a tombstone with the following inscription : 



DEF08IT0RIUM 



Andres Broughton Armigeri Anglicani Maydstonensis in Co- 
mitatu Cantii abi bis prstor Urbanus. Dignatusque etiam Aiit 
sententiam Kegis Regum profiiri. Qaam ob causam ezpulsus 
patri^ swk, peregriuatione ejus finite, solo senectutis moroo afr 
rectus Tequiescens a laboribus suis in Domino obdormivit, 23 die 
Feb. Anno D. 1687, aetatis su» 84. 

The inhabitants of the place could give no account 
of this Broughton ; but I suppose by his epitaph it 
is the same person that was clerk to the pretended 
high court of justice^ which passed sentence on the 
royal martyr. 

The next day we spent at Lausanne^ the greatest 
town on the lake^ after Geneva. We saw the wall 
of the cathedral church that was opened by an earth- 
quake^ and shut again some years after by a second. 
The crack can but be just discerned at present^ 
though there are several in the town still living 
who have formerly passed through it. The duke H 
Schomberg^ who was killed in Savoy ^ lies in this 
churchy but without any monument or inscription 
over him. Lausanne was once a republic^ but is now 
under the canton of Beme^ and governed^ like the 
rest of their dominions^ by a baily> who is sent them 
every three years from the senate of Berne. There 
is one street of this town that has the privilege of 
acquitting or condemning any person of their own 
body, in matters of life and death. Every inhabitant 
of it has his vote, which makes a house here sell 
better than in any other part of the town. They 



216 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

tell you that not many years ago it happened^ that a 
cobbler had the casting vote for the life of a criminal^ 
which he very graciously gave on the merciful side. 
From Lausanne to Geneva we coasted along the 
country of the Vaud^ which is the fruitfulest and 
best cultivated part of any among the Alps. It 
belonged formerly to the duke of Savoy^ but was 
won &om him by the canton of Beme^ and made 
over to it by the treaty of St. Julian^ which is still 
very much regretted by the Savoyard. We called 
in at Morge^ where there is an artificial port^ and a 
show of more trade than in any other town on the 
lake. From JMorge we came to 5j^yx>n. The colonia 
equestris, that Juuus Ciesar settled in this country^ 
is generally supposed to have been planted in this 
place. They have often dug up old Roman inscrip- 
tions and statues ; and as I walked in the town^ I 
observed in the walls of several houses the fragments 
of vast Corinthian pillars^ with several other pieces 
of architecture^ which must have formerly belonged 
to some very noble pile of building. There is no 
author that mentions this colony; yet it is certain^ by 
several old Roman inscriptions^ that there was such 
a one. Lucan^ indeed^ speaks of a part of Caesar's 
army^ that came to him from the Leman lake in the 
beginning of the civil war : 

Deseruere cava tentoriajixa Lemanno, 

At about five miles' distance from Nyon they show 
still the ruins of Ceesar s wall^ that reached eighteen 
miles in lensth from mount Jura to the borders of 
the lake^ as he has described it in the first book of 
his Commentaries. The next town upon the lake 
is Versoy^ which we could not have an opportunity 
pf seeing^ as belonging to the king of France. It has 



i 



GENEVA AND THE LAKE. 217 

the reputation of being extremely poor and beggarly 
We sailed from hence directly. for Geneva, which 
makes a very noble show from the lake. There are 
near Greneva several quarries of freestone that run 
under the lake. When the water is at lowest they 
mtike within the borders of it a little square inclosed 
with four walls. In this square they sink a pit and dig 
for freestone ; the walls hindering the waters from 
coming in upon them, when the lake rises and runs on 
all sides of them. The great convenience of carriage 
makes these stones much cheaper than any that can 
be found upon firm land. One sees several deep pits 
that have been made at several times as one sails over 
them. As the lake approaches Geneva it grows still 
narrower and narrower, till at last it changes its 
name into the Rhone, which turns all the mills of 
the town, and is extremely rapid, notwitlistanding 
its waters are very deep. As 1 have seen a great 
part of the course of this river, I cannot but think 
it has been guided by the particular hand of Provi- 
dence. It rises in the very heart of the Alps, and 
has a long valley that seems hewn out on purpose to 
give its waters a passage amidst so many rocKS and 
mountains which are on all sides of it. This brings 
it almost in a direct line to Geneva. It would there 
overflow all the country, were there not one par- 
ticular cleft that divides a vast circuit of mountains, 
and conveys it off to Lyons. From Lyons there is 
another great rent, which runs across the whole 
country in almost another straight line, and, not- 
withstanding the vast height of the mountains that 
rise about it, gives it the shortest course it can take 
to fall into the sea. Had such a river as this been 
left to itself to have found its way out from among 
the Alps, whatever windings it had made it must 

VOL. IV. u 



218 REMARKS ON ITALY, 

have fonned seyeral little seas, and have laid manj 
countries under water, before it had come to the end 
of its course. I shall not make any remarks upon 
Oeneya, which is a republic so well known to the 
English. It lies at present under some difficulties 
by reason of the emperor's displeasure, who has for- 
bidden the importation of their manufactures into 
any part of the empire, which will certainly raise a 
seoition among the people, unless the magistrates 
find some way to remedy it : and they say it is al- 
ready done by the interposition of the states of Hol- 
land. The occasion of the emperor's prohibition was 
their furnishing great sums to the king of France for 
the payment of his army in Italy. They obliged 
themselves to remit, after the rate of twelve hundred 
thousand pounds sterling, per annum, divided into 
so many monthly payments. As the interest was 
very sreat, several of the merchants of Lyons, who 
would not trust their king in their own names^ are 
said to have contributed a great deal under the 
names of Geneva merchants. The republic fancies 
itself hardly treated by the emperor, since it is not 
any action of the state, but a compact among private 
persons that have furnished out these several remit- 
tances. They pretend, however, to have put a stop 
to them, and by that means are in hopes again to 
open their commerce into the empire. 

FRIBOURG, BERNE, SOLEURRE, ZURICH^ 
ST. GAUL, LINDAU, ETC. 

From Geneva I travelled to Lausaime, and thence 
to Fribourg, which is but a mean town for the capi- 
tal of so large a canton. Its situation is so irregular, 
that they are forced to climb up to several parts of it 



FRIBOURG, BERNE, etc. 219 

by staircases of a prodigious ascent. This incon- 
▼emence^ however, gives them a very great commo- 
dity in case a fire breaks out in any part of the 
town ; for by reason of several reservoirs on the tops 
of these mountains, by the opening of a sluice they 
convey a river into what part of the town they 
please. They have four churches, four convents of 
women, and as many for men. The little chapel^ 
called the Salutation, is very neat, and built with a 
pretty fancy. The college of Jesuits is, they say, 
the finest in Switzerland. There is a great deal of 
room in it, and several beautiful views ^om the dif- 
ferent parts of it. They have a collection of pictures 
representing most of the iPathers of their order who 
have been eminent for their piety or learning. 
Among the rest, many Englishmen, whom we name 
rebels, and they martyrs. Henry Garnet's inscrip- 
tion says, that when the heretics could not prevail 
with him, either by force or promises, to change his 
religion, they hanged and quartered him. At the 
capuchins* I saw the escargatoire, which I took the 
more notice of, because I do not remember to have 
met with anything of the same nature in other 
countries. It is a square place boarded in, and 
iilled with a vast quantity of large snails, that are 
esteemed excellent food when they are well dressed- 
The floor is strewed about half a foot deep with 
several kinds of plants, among which the snails 
nestle all the winter season. When Lent arrives 
they open their magazines, and take out of them 
the best meagre food in the world, for there is no 
•dish of fish that they reckon comparable to a ragout 
of snails. 

About two leagues from Fribourg we went to see 
a hermitage, that is reckoned the greatest curiosity 



«20 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

of these parts. It lies in the prettiest solitude ima- 

S'nable^ among woods and rocks^ which at first sight 
•pose a man to be serious. There has lived in it a 
hermit these five and twenty years^ who with his 
own hands has worked in the rock a pretty chapel^ a 
sacristy^ a chamber, kitchen, cellar, and other con- 
veniences. His chimney is carried up through the 
whole rock, so that you see the sky through it, not- 
withstanding the rooms lie very deep. He has cut 
the side of the rock into a flat for a garden, and by 
laying on it the waste earth that he has found in 
several of the neighbouring parts, has made such a 
spot of ground of it as furnishes out a kind of luxury 
for a hermit. As he saw drops of water distilling 
from several parts of the rock, by following the veins 
of them, he has made himself two or three fountains 
in the bowels of the mountain, that serve his tabid, 
and water his little garden. 

We had very bad ways from hence to Berne, a 
great part of them through woods of fir trees. The 
great quantity of timber they have in this country, 
makes them mend their highways with wood instead 
of stone. I could not but take notice of the make of 
several of their bams I here saw. After having laid 
a frame of wood for the foundation, they place at 
the four comers of it four huge blocks, cut in such a 
shape as neither mice nor any other sort of vermin 
can creep up the sides of them, at the same time 
that they raise the com above the moisture that 
might come into it ft*om the ground. - The whole 
weight of the barn is supported by these four blocks. 

What pleased me most at Berne was their public 
walks by the great church. They are raised ex- 
tremely nigh, and that their weight might not break 
down the walls and pilasters which surround them. 



^r^m-'^^m^^^mmmma 



FRIBOURG, BERNE, etc. 221 

they are built upon arches and vaults* Though 
they are^ I believe^ as high as most steeples in £nff« 
land from the streets and gardens that lie at the 
foot of them^ yet about forty years ago a person in 
liifi drink fell down from the very top to the bottom^ 
without doing himself any other hurt than the break- 
ing of an arm. He died about four years ago. 
There is the noblest summer prospect in the world 
from this walk^ for you have a full view of a huge 
range of mountains that lie in the country of the 
Grisons, and are buried in snow. They are about 
twenty-five leagues' distance from the town^ though 
by reason of their height i^nd their colour they seem 
much nearer. The cathedral church stands on one 
aide of these walks> and is, perhaps, the most magni- 
ficent of any protestant church in Europe out of 
£!)igland. It is a very bold work, and a master- 
piece in Gothic architecture. 

I saw the arsenal of Berne, where they say there 
are arms for twenty thousand men. There is, in- 
deed, ho great pleasure in visiting these magazines 
of war after one has seen two or three of them, yet 
it is very well worth a traveller's while to look into 
all that lie in his way ; for besides the idea it gives 
him of the forces of a state, it serves to fix in his 
mind the most considerable parts of its history. 
Thus in that of Geneva,- one meets with the ladders, 
petard, and other utensib which were made use of 
in their famous escalade, besides the weapons they 
took of the Savoyards, Florentines, and French, in 
the several battles mentioned in their history. In 
this of Berne, you have the figure and armour of the 
count who founded the town, of the famous Tell, 
who is represented as shooting at the apple on his 
son's head. The story is too well known to be re- 

u3 



222 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

peated in this place. I here^ likewise^ saw the 
figure and armour of him that headed the peasants 
in the war upon Berne, with the several weapons 
which were found, in the hands of his followers. 
They show, too, abundance of arms that they took 
from the Burgundians in the three great battles 
which established them in their liberty, and de- 
stroyed the great duke of Burgundy himself, with 
the bravest of his subjects. I saw nothing remark- 
able in the chambers where the council meet, nor in 
the fortifications of the town. These last were made 
on occasion of the peasants' insurrection, to defend 
the place for the future against the like sudden as- 
saults. In their library I observed a couple of an- 
tique figures in metal, of a priest pouring wine 
between the horns of a bull. The priest is veiled 
after the manner of the old Romah sacrificers, and is 
represented in the same action that Virgil describes 
in the third uEneid : 

Ipsa tenens dextrd pateram pulcherrima Dido 
Candentis V€u:c€B media inter cornuajundit. 

This antiquity was found at Lausanne. 

The town of Berne is plentifully furnished with 
water, there being a great multitude of handsome 
fountains planted at set distances from one end of 
the streets to the other. There is, indeed, no coun- 
try in the world better supplied with water than 
the several parts of Switzerland that I travelled 
through. One meets everywhere in the roads with 
fountains continually running into huge troughs that 
stand underneath them, which is wonderfully com- 
modious in a country that so much abounds with 
horses and cattle. It has so many springs breaking 
out of the sides of the hills, and such vast quantities 



FRIBOURG, BERNE, etc. 223 

of wood to make pipes of^ that it is no wonder they 
are so well stocked with fountains. 

On the road between Berne and Soleurre there is 
a monument erected by the republic of Beme^ which 
tells us the story of an Englishman who is not to 
be met with in any of our own writers. The in- 
scription is in Latin verse on one side of the stone, 
and in German on the other. I had not time to 
copy it, but the substance of it is this : One Cus- 
sinus, an Englishman, to whom the duke of Austria 
had given his sister in marriage, came to take her 
from among the Swiss by force of arms ; but after 
having ravaged the country for some time, he was 
here overthrown by the canton of Berne. 

Soleurre is our next considerable town that seemed 
to me to have a greater air of politeness than any I 
saw in Switzerland. The French ambassador has 
his residence in this place. His master contributed 
a great sum of money to the Jesuits' church, which 
is not yet quite finished. It is the finest modern 
building in Switzerland. The old cathedral church 
stood not far from it. At the ascent that leads to it 
are a couple of antique pillars which belonged to an 
old heathen temple, dedicated to Hermes : they 
seem Tuscan by their proportion. The whole forti- 
fication of Soleurre is faced with marble. But its 
best fortifications are the high mountains that lie 
within its neighbourhood, and separate it from the 
Franche Compte. 

The next day's journey carried us through other 
parts of the canton of Berne, to the little town of 
Meldingen. I was surprised to find in all my road 
through Switzerland, the wine that grows in the 
country of Vaud en the borders of the lake of Ge- 
neva, which is very cheap, notwithstanding the great 



2t4 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

dislaiioe between the Tineyards and the tovms tliat 
sell the wine. But the navigable rivers of Switzer- 
land are as oommodions to them in this respect> as 
the sea is to the English. As soon as the vintage is 
over, they ship off their wine upon the lake^ which 
furnishes all the towns that lie upon its borders. 
What they design for other parts of the country they 
unload at Very, and after about half a day's land- 
carriage convey it into the river Aar^ whidi brings 
it down the stream to Beme^ Soleurre^ and, in a 
wordy distributes it through idl the richest parts of 
Switzerland; as it is easy to guess from the first 
sight of the map, which shows us the natural com- 
munication Providence has formed between the many 
rivers and lakes of a country that is at so great a 
distance firom the sea. The canton of Berne is 
reckoned as powerful as all the rest together. They 
can send a hundred thousand men into the field; 
though the soldiers of the catholic cantons^ who are 
much poorer^ and therefore forced to enter oftener 
into foreign armies, are more esteemed than the 
protestants. 

We lay one night at Meldingen, which is a little 
Roman catholic town with one. church and no con- 
vent. It is a republic of itself, under the protection 
of the eight ancient cantons. There are in it a 
hundred bourgeois, and about a thousand souls. 
Their government is modelled after the same man- 
ner with that of the cantons, as much as so small a 
community can imitate those of so large an extent. 
For this reason, though they have very little busi- 
ness to do, they have all the variety of councils and 
officers that are to be met with in the greater states. 
They have a town-house to meet in, adorned with 
the arms of the eight cantons their protectors. They 



FRIBOURG, BERNE, etc. 225 

have three oonncils, the great oonncil of fourteen, 
the little council of ten, and the privy council of 
three. The chief of the state are the two avoyers : 
\irhen I was there, the reigning avoyer, or the doge 
of the commonwealth, was son to the innkeeper 
where I was lodged ; his father having enjoyed the 
same honours before him. His revenue amounts to 
about thirty pound a year. The several councils 
meet every Thursday upon affairs of state, such as 
the reparation of a trough, the mending of a pave- 
ment, or any the like matters of importance. The 
river that runs through their dominions puts them 
to the charge of a very large bridge, that is all made 
of wood, and coped overhead, like the rest in Swit- 
zerland. Those that travel over it pay a certain 
due towards the maintenance of this bridge. And 
as the French ambassador has often occasion to pass 
this way, his master gives the town a pension of 
twenty pounds sterling, which makes them ex- 
tremely mdustrious to raise all the men they can for 
his service, and keeps this powerful republic firm to 
the French interest. You may be sure the pre- 
serving of the bridge, with the regulation of the 
dues arising from it, is the grand affair that cuts 
out employment for the several councils of state. 
They have a small village belonging to them, 
whither they punctually send a bailiff for the distri- 
bution of justice ; in imitation still of the great can- 
tons. There are three other towns that have the 
same privileges and protectors. 

We dined the next day at Zurich, that is prettily 
situated on the outlet of the lake, and is reckoned 
the handsomest town in Switzerland. The chief 
places shown to strangers are the arsenal, the 
library, and the town-house. This last is but lately 



226 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

finbhed^ and is a very fine pile of building. The 
frontispiece has pillars of a beautiful black marble 
streaked with white^ which is found in the neigh- 
bouring mountains. The chambers for the several 
councils, with the other apartments, are very neat. 
The whole building is indeed so well designed^ that 
it would make a good figure even in Italy. It is 
pity they have spoiled the beauty of the walls with 
abundance of childish Latin sentences, that consist 
often in a jingle of words. I have indeed observed 
in several inscriptions of this country, that your 
men of learning here are extremely delighted in 
playing little tricks with words and figures; for 
your Swiss wits are not yet got out of anagram and 
acrostic. The library is a very large room, pretty 
well filled. Over it is another room furnished with 
several artificial and natural curiosities. I saw in it 
a huge map of the country of Zurich, drawn with a 
pencil, where they see every particular fountain and 
hillock in their dominions. I ran over their cabinet 
of me^ Is, but do not remember to have met with 
any in it that are extraordinary rare. The arsenal 
is better than that of Berne, and they say has arms 
for thirty thousand men. 

At about a day's journey from Zurich we entered 
oa the territories of the abbot of St. Gaul. They 
are four hours' riding in breadth, and twelve in 
length. The abbot can raise in it an army of twelve 
thousand men, well armed and exercised. He is 
sovereign of the whole country, and under the pro- 
tection of the cantons of Zurich, Lucerne, Glaris, 
and Switz. He is always chosen out of the abbey 
of Benedictines at St. Gaul. Every father and 
brother of the convent has a voice in the election, 
which must afterwards be confirmed by the pope. 



FRIBOURG, BERNE, etc. 227 

The last abbot was cardinal Sft*ondati^ who was ad- 
vanced to the purple about two years before his 
death. The abbot takes the advice and consent of 
his chapter^ before he enters on any matters of 
importance, as the levying of a tax, or declaring of 
a war. His chief lay-officer is the grand maitre 
cT h6tely or high steward of the household, who is 
named by the abbot, and has the management of all 
affairs under him. There are several other judges 
and distributers of justice appointed for the several 
parts of his dominions, horn whom there always lies 
an appeal to the prince. His residence is generally 
at the Benedictine convent at St. Gaul, notwith- 
standing the town of St. Gaul is a little protestant 
republic, wholly independent of the abbot, and 
under the protection of the cantons. 

One would wonder to see so many rich bourgeois 
in the town of St. Gaul, and so very few poor 
people in a place that has scarce any lands belonging 
to it, and little or no income but what arises n'om 
its trade. But the great support and riches of this 
little state is its linen manufacture, which employs 
almost all ages and conditions of its inhabitants. 
The whole country about them furnishes them 
with vast quantities of flax, out of which they are 
said to make yearly forty thousand pieces of linen 
cloth, reckoning two hundred ells to the piece. 
Some of their manufacture is as finely wrought 
as any that can be met with in Holland ; for they 
have excellent artisans, and great commodities for 
whitening. All the fields about the town were so 
covered with their manufacture, that coming in the 
dusk of the evening we mistook them for a lake. 
They send off their works upon mules into Italy, 
Spain^ Germany^ and all the adjacent countries. 



228 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

They reckon in the town of St. Gaul^ and m the 
houses that lie scattered about it, near ten thousand 
souls, of which there are sixteen hundred bourgeois. 
They choose their councils and burgomasters out of 
the body of the bourgeois, as in the other govern- 
ments of Switzerland, which are everywhere of the 
same nature, the difference lying only in the numbers 
of such as are employed in state affairs, which are 
proportioned to the grandeur of the states that em-? 
ploy them. The abbey and the town bear a great 
aversion to one another ; but in the general diet of 
the cantons their representatives sit together, and 
act by concert. The abbot deputes his grand rnaUre 
d hdtel, and the town one of its burgomasters. 

About four years ago the town and abbey would 
have come to an open rupture, had it not been timely 
prevented by the interposition of their common pro- 
tectors. The occasion was this. A Benedictine monk, 
in one of their annual processions, carried his <a*06S 
erected through the town with a train of three or 
four thousand peasants following him. They had no 
sooner entered the convent but the whole town was 
in a tumult, occasioned by the insolence of the priest, 
who, contrary to all precedents, had presumed to 
carry his cross in that manner. The bourgeois im- 
mediately put themselves in arms, and drew down 
four pieces of their cannon to the gates of the con- 
vent. The procession, to escape the fury of the 
citizens, durst not return by the way it came, but, 
after the devotions of the monks were finished, 
passed out at a back door of the convent, that im- 
mediately led into the abbot's territories. The 
abbot on his part raises an army, blocks up the 
town on the side that faces his dominions, and for- 
bids his subjects to furnish it with any of their 



FRIBOURG, BERNE, etc. 229 

commodities. While things were just ripe for a 
M^ar^ the cantons^ their protectors^ interposed as um- 
pires in the quarrel, condemning the town^ that had 
appeared too forward in the dispute, to a fine of two 
thousand crowns; and enacting at the same time, 
that, as soon as any procession entered their walls, 
the priest should let the cross hang about his neck 
Tdthout touching it with either hand, -till he came 
within the precincts of the abbey. The citizens 
could bring into the field near two thousand men 
well exercised, and armed to the best advantage, 
with which they fancy they could make head against 
twelve or fifteen thousand peasants, for so many the 
abbot could easily raise in his territories. But the 
protestant subjects of the abbey, who, they say, 
make up a good third of its people, would probably, 
in case of a war, abandon the cause of their prince 
for that of their religion. The town of St. Gaul has 
an arsenal, library, town-houses, and churches, pro- 
portionable to the bigness of the state. It is well 
enough fortified to resist any sudden attack, and to 
give the cantons time to come to their assistance. 
The abbey is by no means so magnificent as one 
would expect from its endowments. The church is 
one huge nef with a double aisle to it. At each end 
is a large choir. The one of them is supported by 
vast pillars of stone, cased over with a composition 
that looks the most like marble of anything one can 
imagine. On the ceiling and walls of the church are 
lists of saints, martyrs, popes^ cardinals, archbishops, 
kings, and queens, that have been of the Benedictine 
order. There are several pictures of such as have 
been distinguished by their birth, sanctity, or mira- 
cles, with inscriptions that let you into the name 
and history of the persons represented. I have often 

VOL. IV. X 



230 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

wished that some traveller would take the pains to 
gather all the modem inscriptions which are to be 
met with in Roman catholic countries^ as Gruter 
and others have copied out the ancient heathen 
monuments. Had we two or three volumes of this 
nature^ without any of the collector's own reflections^ 
I am sure there is nothing in the world could give a 
clearer idea of the Roman catholic religion^ nor ex- 
pose more the pride, vanity^ and self-interest of con- 
vents^ the abuse of indulgencies^ the folly and im- 
pertinence of votaries^ and, in shorty the superstition^ 
credulity^ and childishness of the Roman catholic 
religion. One might fill several sheets at St. Gaul^ 
as there are few considerable convents or churches 
that would not afford large contributions. 

As the king of France distributes his pensions 
through all the parts of Switzerland, the town and 
abbey of St. Graul come in too for their share. To 
the first he gives ^ve hundred crowns per annum, 
and to the other a thousand. This pension has not 
been paid these three years, which they attribute to 
their not acknowledging the duke of Anjou for king 
of Spain. The town and abbey of St. Gaul carry a 
bear for their arms. The Roman catholics have this 
bear's memory in very great veneration, and repre- 
sent him as the first convert their saint made in the 
country. One of the most learned of the Benedic- 
tine monks gave me the following history of him, 
which he delivered to me with tears of affection in 
his eyes. " St. Gaul^ it seems, whom they call the 
great apostle of Germany, found all this country 
little better than a vast desert. As he was walking 
in it on a very cold day he chanced to meet a bear in 
his way. The saint, instead of being startled at the 
rencounter, ordered the bear to bring him a bundle 



FRIBOURG, BERNE, etc. 231 

of wood, and make him a fire. The bear served bim 
to the best of his ability, and, at his departure, was 
commanded by the saint to retire into the very depth 
of the woods, and there to pass the rest of his life 
"without ever hurting man or beast. From this time, 
says the monk, the bear lived irreproachably, and 
observed, to his dying day, the orders that the saint 
bad given him.** 

I have often considered, with a great deal of plea- 
sure, the profound peace and tranquillity that reisns 
in Switzerland and its alliances. It is very wonder- 
ful to see such a knot of governments, which are so 
divided among themselves in matters of religion, 
maintain so uninterrupted an union and correspond- 
ence, that no one of them is for invading the rights 
of another, but remains content witliin the bounds 
of its first establishment. This, I think, must be 
chiefly ascribed to the nature of the people, and the 
constitution of their governments. Were the Swiss 
animated by zeal or ambition, some or other of their 
states would immediately break in upon the rest ; or 
were the states so many principalities, they might 
often have an ambitious sovereign at the head of 
them, who would embroil his neighbours, and sacri- 
fice the repose of his subjects to his own glory. But 
as the inhabitants of these countries are naturally of 
a heavy phlegmatic temper, if any of their leading 
members have more fire and spirit than comes to 
their share, it is quickly tempered by the coldness 
and moderation of the rest who sit at the helm with 
them. To this we may add, that the Alps is the 
worst spot of ground in the world to make conquests 
in, a great part of its governments being so naturally 
intrenched among woods and mountains. However 
it be> we find no such disorders among them as one 



232 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

would expect in such a multitude of states ; for as 
soon as any public rupture happens^ it is immediately 
closed up by the moaeration and good offices of the 
rest that interpose. 

As all the considerable governments among the 
Alps are commonwealths^ so^ indeed^ it is a constitu- 
tion the most adapted of any other to the poverty 
and barrenness of these countries. We may see only 
in a neighbouring government the ill consequences 
of having a despotic prince^ in a state that is most of 
it composed of rocks and mountains; for^ notwith- 
standing there is a vast extent of lands^ and many of 
them better than those of the Swiss and Grisons^ 
the common people among the latter are much more 
at their ease^ and in a greater affluence of all the 
conveniences of life. A prince's court eats too much 
into the income of a poor state^ and generally intro- 
duces a kind of luxury and magnificence^ that sets 
everv particular person upon making a higher figure 
in his station than is consistent with his revenue. 

It is the great endeavour of the several cantons of 
Switzerland^ to banish from among them everything 
that looks like pomp or superfluity. To this end the 
ministers are silways preaching, and the governors 
putting out edicts against dancing, gaming, enter- 
tainments, and fine clothes. This is become more 
necessary in some of the governments since there 
are so many refugees settled among them ; for^ 
though the protestants in France affect ordinarily a 
greater plainness and simplicity of manners than 
those of the same quality who are of the Roman 
catholic communion, they have, however, too much 
of their country gallantry for the genius and consti- 
tution of Switzerland. Should dressing, feasting^ 
and balls once get among the cantons^ their military 



■^ 



FRIBOURG, BERNE, etc. 233 

xtmghness would be quickly lost, their tempers would 
grow too soft for their climate, and their expenses 
outrun their incomes ; besides that, the materials for 
their luxury must be brought from other nations, 
which would immediately ruin a country that has 
few commodities of its o^yn to export, and is not 
overstocked with money. Luxury, indeed^ wounds 
a republic in its very vitals, as its natursd conse- 
quences are rapine, avarice, and injustice; for the 
more money a man spends, the more must he en- 
deavour to augment his stock; which at last sets 
the liberty and votes of a commonwealth to sale, if 
they find any foreign power that is able to pay the 
price of them. We see nowhere the pernicious 
effects of luxury on a republic more than in that of 
the ancient Romans, who immediately found itself 
poor as soon as this vice got footing among them, 
though they were possessed of all the riches in the 
world. We find in the beginnings and increases of 
their commonwealth strange instances of the con- 
tempt of money, because indeed they were utter 
strangers to the pleasures that might be procured by 
it ; or, in other words, because they were wholly 
ignorant of the arts of luxury. But as soon as they 
once entered into a taste of pleasure, politeness, and 
magnificence, they fell into a thousand violences, 
conspiracies, and divisions, that threw them into all 
the disorders imaginable, and terminated in the 
utter subversion of the commonwealth. It is no 
wonder, therefore, the poor commonwealths of Swit- 
zerland are ever labouring at the suppression and 
prohibition of everything that may introduce vanity 
and luxury. Besides the several fines that are set 
upon plays, games, balls, and feastings, they have 
many customs among them which very much con* 

x3 



234 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

tribute to the keeping up of their ancient simpGcity. 
The bourgeois^ who are at the head of the goyenr- 
ments, are obliged to appear at all their public as- 
semblies in a buick cloak and a band. The women's 
dress is very plain^ those of the best quality wearing 
nothing on their heads generally but furs^ which are 
to be met with in their own country. The persons 
of different qualities in both sexes are indeed al- 
lowed their different ornaments^ but these are gene- 
rally such as are by no means costly, being rather 
designed as marks of distinction than to make a 
figure. The chief officers of Berne, for example, are 
known by the crowns of their h^ts, which are much 
deeper than those of an inferior character. The 
peasants are eeneraUy clothed in a coarse kind of 
canvas, that is the manufacture of the coimtry. 
Their holiday clothes go from father to son, and are 
seldom worn out till the second or third generation : 
so that it is common enough to see a countryman in 
the doublet and breeches of his great-grandfather. 

Geneva is much politer than Switzerland or any 
of its allies, and is therefore looked upon as the court 
of the Alps, whither the protestant cantons often 
send their children to improve themselves in lan- 
guase and education. The Grenevois have been very 
mucn refined, or, as others ^vill have it, corrupted, 
by the conversation of the French protestants, who 
make up almost a third of their people. It is cer- 
tain they have very much forgotten the advice that 
Calvin gave them in a great council a little before 
his death, when he recommended to them, above all 
things, an exemplary modesty and humility, and as 
great a simplicity in their manners as in their reli- 
gion. Whether or no they have done well, to set 
up for making another kind of figure, time will wit« 



FRIBOURG, BERNE, etc. 2Z5 

ness. There are several that fancy the great sums 
they have remitted into Italy, though by this means 
they make their court to the king of France at 
present, may sometime or other give him inclination 
to become the master of so wealthy a city. 

As this collection of little states abounds more in 
pasturage than in corn, they are all provided with 
their public granaries, and have the humanity to fur- 
nish one another in public exigencies, when the 
scarcity is not universal. As the administration of 
affairs relating to these public granaries is not very 
different in any of the particular governments, I 
shall content myself to set down the rules observed 
in it by the little commonwealth of Geneva, in 
which I had more time to inform myself of the par- 
ticulars than in any other. There are three of the 
Cttle council deputed for this office. They are 
obliged to keep together a provision sufficient to feed 
the people at least two years, in case of war or 
feimine. They must take care to fill their magazines 
in times of the greatest plenty, that so they may 
afford cheaper, and increase the public revenue at a 
small expense of its members. None of the three 
managers must, upon any pretence, furnish the 
granaries from his own fields, that so they may have 
no temptation to pay too great a price, or put any 
bad corn upon the public. They must buy up no 
com growing within twelve miles of Geneva, that so 
the filling their magazines may not prejudice their 
market, and raise the price of their provisions at 
home. That such a collection of com may not spoil 
in keeping, all the inns and public-houses are obliged 
to furnish themselves out of it, by which means is 
raised the most considerable branch of the public 
revenues ; the corn being sold out at a mueh dearer 



tS6 REMARKS ON ITALT. 

rate than it is bonglit up. So thiit the greatest in- 
oaine of the oommonwealth, which pays the pensions 
of most of its officers and ministers, is raised on 
strangers and travellers, or sach of their own body 
as have money enough to spend at taverns and 
public-houses. 

It is the costom in Geneva and Switzerland to 
divide their estates equally among all their children, 
by which means every one lives at his ease without 
growing dangerous to the republic : for, as soon as an 
overgrown estate falls into the hands of one that has 
many children, it is broken into so many portions as 
render the sharers of it rich enough, without raising 
them too much above the level of the rest. This is 
absolutely necessary in these little republics, where 
the rich merchants live very much within their 
estates, and by heaping up vast sums from year to 
year, might b«oome formidable to the rest of their 
fellow-citizens, and break the equality which is so 
necessary in these kinds of governments, were there 
not means found out to distribute their wealth among 
several members of their republic. At Geneva, for 
instance, are merchants reckoned worth twenty hun- 
dred thousand crowns, though, perhaps, there is not 
one of them who spends to the ysbie of ^ve hundred 
pounds a year. 

Though the protestants and papists know very 
well that it is their common interest to keep a 
steady neutrality in all the wars between the states 
of Europe, they cannot forbear siding with a party 
in their discourse. The catholics are zealous for the 
French king, as the protestants do not a little glory 
in the riches, power, and good success of the English 
and Dutch, wnom they look upon as the bulwarks of 
the reformation. The ministers, in particular, have 






FRIBOURG, BERNE, etc. 237 

often preached against such of their fellow-subjects 
as enter into the troops of the French king ; but so 
long as the Swiss see their interest in it, their 
poverty will always hold them ficist to his service. 
They have, indeed, the exercise of their religion, 
and their ministers with them, which is the more re- 
markable, because the very same prince refused even 
those of the church of England^ who followed their 
master to St. Grermains, the public exercise of their 
religion. 

Before I leave Switzerland I cannot but observe, 
that the notion of witchcraft reigns very much in 
this country. I have often been tired with accounts 
of this nature from very sensible men, who are most 
of them furnished with matters of fact which have 
happened, as they pretend, within the compass of 
their own knowledge. It is certain there have been 
many executions on this account, as in the canton of 
Berne there were some put to death during my stay 
at Geneva. The people are so universally infotu- 
ated with the notion, that if a cow falls sick, it is 
ten to one but an old woman is clapped up in 
prison for it; and if the poor creature chance to 
think herself a witch, the whole country is for hang* 
ing her up without mercy. One finds, indeed, the 
same humour prevail in most of the rocky barren 
parts of Europe. Whether it be that poverty and 
ignorance, which are generally the products of these 
countries, may reaUy engage a wretch in such dark 
practices, or whether or no the same principles may 
not render the people too credulous, and, perhaps, 
too easy to get rid of some of their improfitaole 
members. 

A great affair that employs the Swiss politics at 
present is the prince of Conti's succession to the 



238 REMARKS ON ITALY, 

duchess of Nemoars in the government of Neu- 
chateL The inhabitants of Neuchatel can by no 
means think of submitting themselves to a prince 
who is a Roman catholic^ and a subject of France. 
They were very attentive to his conduct in the 

Erincipality of Orange^ which they did not question 
ut he would rule with all the mildness and modera- 
tion imaginable^ as it would be the best means in 
the world to recommend him to Neuchatel. But 
notwithstanding it was so much his interest to 
manage his protestant subjects in that country^ and 
the strong assurances he had given them in protect- 
ing them in all their privileges, and particularly in 
the free exercise of their religion, he made over his 
principality in a very little time, for a sum of money, 
to the king of France. It is, indeed, generally be- 
lieved the prince of Conti would rather still have 
kept his title to Orange ; but the same respect which 
inauced him to quit this government, might at 
another time tempt him to give up that of Neu- 
chatel on the like conditions. The king of Prussia 
lays in his claim for Neuchatel, as he did for the 
principality of Orange and it is probable would be 
more acceptable to the inhabitants than the other ; 
but they are generally disposed to declare themselves 
a free commonwealth, after the death of the duchess 
of Nemours, if the Swiss will support them. The 
protestant cantons seem much inclined to assist 
them, which they may very well do, in case the 
duchess dies whilst the king of France has his 
hands so full of business on all sides of him. It 
certainly very much concerns them not to suffer the 
French king to establish his authority on this side 
mount Jura, and on the very borders of their country ; 
but it is not easy to foresee what a round sum of 



FRIBOURG, BERNE, etc. 239 

money, or the fear of a rupture with France, may- 
do among a people who have tamely suffered the 
Franche Compte to be seized on, and a fort to be 
built within cannon-shot of one of their cantons. 

There is a new sect sprung up in Switzerland, 
which spreads very much in the protestant cantons. 
The professors of it call themselves Pietists, and as 
enthu^sm carries men generally to the like ex- 
travagancies, they differ but little from several sec- 
taries in other countries. They pretend in general 
to great refinements, as to what regards the practice 
of Christianity, and to observe the following rules : 
To retire much from the conversation of the world. 
To sink themselves into an entire repose and tran- 
quillity of mind. In this state of silence to attend 
the secret elapse and flowings in of the Holy Spirit, 
that may fill their minds with peace and consolation, 
joys or raptures. To favour all his secret intima- 
tions, and give themselves up entirely to his conduct 
and direction, so as neither to spesJc, move, or act, 
but as they find his impulse on their souls. To re- 
trench themselves within the conveniences and ne- 
cessities of life. To make a covenant with all their 
senses, so far as to shun the smell of a rose or violet, 
and to turn away their eyes from a beautiful pros- 
pect. To avoid, as much as is possible, what the 
world calls innocent pleasures, lest they should have 
their affections tainted by any sensuality, and di- 
verted from the love of him who is to be the only 
comfort, repose, hope, and delight of their whole 
beings. This sect prevails very much among the 
protestants of Germany, as well as those of Switzer- 
land, and has occasioned several edicts against it in 
the dutchy of Saxony. The professors of it are ac- 
cused of all the ill practices which may seem to be 



240 .REMARKS ON ITALY. 

the consequence of their principles; as that they 
ascribe the worst of actions, \^ch their own vicious 
tempers throw tliem upon, to the dictates of the 
Holy Spirit ; that both sexes, . under pretence of 
devout conversation, visit one another at all hours, 
and in all places, without any regard to common 
decency, often making their religion a cover for their 
immoralities; and that the very best of them are 
possessed with spiritual pride, and a contempt for all 
such as are not of their own sect. The Roman 
catholics, who reproach the protestants for their 
breaking into sucn a multitude of religions, have 
certainly taken the most effectual way in the world 
for the keeping their flocks together ; I do not mean 
the punishments they inflict on men's persons, which 
are commonly looked upon as the chief methods by 
which they deter them from breaking through the 
pale of the church, though certainly these lay a very 
great restraint on those of the Roman catholic per- 
suasion. But I take one great cause why there are 
so few sects in the church of Rome, to be the multi- 
tude of convents, with which they everywhere 
abound, that serve as receptacles for all those fiery 
zealots who would set the church in a flame, were 
not they got together in these houses of devotion. 
All men of dark tempers, according to their degree 
of melancholy or enthusiasm, may find convents fitted 
to their humours, and meet with companions as 
gloomy as themselves. So that what the protestants 
would call a fanatic, is in the Roman church a re- 
ligious of such or such an order; as I have been told- 
of an English merchant at Lisbon, who, after some 
great disappointments in the world, was resolved to 
turn quaker, or capuchin ; for, in the change of re- 
ligion, men of ordinary understandings do not so 



FRIBOURG, BERNE, etc# 241 

mucli consider th6 principles as the practice of tho^e 
to whom they go over. * 

From St. Gaul I took horse to tlie lake, of Con- 
stance, which lies at two leagues' distance from it, 
and is formed by the entry of the Rhine. This is 
the only lake in Europe that disputes for greatness 
with that of Geneva ; it appears more beautiful to 
the eye, but wants the fruitful fields and vineyards 
.that border upon the other. It receives its name 
from Constance^ the Chief town on its banks. When 
the cantons of Berne and Zurich proposed, at a 
general diet, the incorporating Geneva in the num- 
ber of the cantons, the Roman catholic party, fear- 
ing the {Protestant interest might receive by it too 
great a strengthening, proposed at the same time 
the incantoning of Constance as a counterpoise; to 
which the protestants not consenting, the whole pro- 
ject fell to the ground. We crossed the lake to 
liindau, and in several parts of it observed abun- 
danoe of little bubbles of air, that came working up- 
ward from the very bottom of the lake. The water- 
men told us, that they are observed always to rise 
in the same places, from whence they conclude them 
to be so many springs that break out of the bottom 
of the lake. Lindau is an imperial town on a little 
island that lies at about three hundred paces from 
the firm land, to which it is joined by a huge bridge 
of wood. The inhabitants were all in arms when we 
passed through it, being under great apprehensions 
of the duke of Bavaria, after his having fallen upon 
Ulme and Memingen. They flatter themselves, 
that by cutting their bridge they could hold out 
against his army : but in all probability a shower 
of bombs would quickly reduce the bourgeois to sur- 
render. They were formerly bombarded by Gusta- 

VOL. IV. Y 



242 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

TUB Adolphus. We were advised by onr merchants^ 
by no means to venture onrselyes in the duke of 
AiTaria's country, so that we bad the mortification 
to lose the sight of Munich, Augsburg, and Ratisbouy 
and were forced to take our way to Vienna through 
the Tyrol, where we had very little to entertain u» 
besides the natural face of the country. 

TYROL, INSPRUCK, HALLE, ETC. 

After havine coasted the Alps for some time, we 
at last entered them by a passage which leads into 
the long valley of the Tyrol; and following the course 
of the river Inn we came to Inspruck, that receives 
its name from this river, and is the capital city of 
the Tyrol. 

Inspruck is a handsome town, though not a great 
one, and was formerly the residence of the arch- 
dukes who were counts of T3rrol : the palace where 
they used to keep their court is rather convenient 
than magnificent. The great haU is indeed a very 
noble room, the walls of it are painted in fresco, and 
represent the labours of Hercules. Many of them 
look very finely, though a great part of the work ha» 
been cracked by earthquakes, which are very fre- 
quent in this country. There is a little wooden 
palace that borders on the other, whither the court 
used to retire at the first shake of an earthquake. I 
saw here the largest menace that I have met with 
anywhere else. At one end of it is a great partition 
designed for an opera. They showed us also a very 
pretty theatre. The last comedy that was acted on 
It was designed by the Jesuits for the entertainment 
of the queen of the Romans, who passed this way 
from Modena to Vienna. The compliment which 



TYROL, INSPRUCK, HALLE, etc. 1243 

the fathers made her majesty on this occasion was 
very particular, and did not a little expose them to 
the raillery of the court. For the arms of Hanover 
being a horse, the fathers thought it a very pretty 
allusion to represent the queen by Bucephalus, that 
lyould let nobody get upon him but Alexander the 
Great. The wooden horse that acted this notable 
part is still to be seen behind the scenes. In one of 
the rooms of the palace which is hung with the pic- 
tures of several illustrious persons, they showed us 
the portrait of Mary queen of the Scots, who was 
beheaded in the reign of queen Elizabeth. The 
gardens about the house are very large, but ill kept.' 
There is in the middle of them a beautiful statue in 
brass of an archduke Leopold on horseback. There 
are near it twelve other figures of water nymphs and 
river gods, well cast and as big as the life. They 
were designed for the ornaments of a water- work, as 
one might easily make a great variety of jetteaus at 
$1 small expense in a garden that has the river Inn 
running by its walls. The late duke of Lorraine had 
this palace, and the government of the Tyrol, as- 
signed him by the emperor ; and his lady the queen 
dowager of Poland lived here several years after the 
death of the duke her husband. There are covered 
galleries that lead from the palace to five different 
churches. I passed through a vei;y long one which 
reaches to the church of the capuchin convent, where 
the duke of Lorraine used often to assist at their 
midnight devotions. They showed us in this con- 
vent the apartments of Maximilian, who was arch- 
duke and count of Tyrol about fourscore years ago. 
This prince, at the same time that he kept the go- 
vernment in his hands, lived in this convent with all 
the rigour and austerity of a capuchin. His anti"* 



244 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

m 

chamber and room of audience are little square 
chambers wainscoted. His private lodgings are 
three or four small rooms faced with a kind of fret- 
work^ that makes them look l£ke little hollow caverns 
in a rock. They pq^serve this apartment of the con- 
vent uninhabited^ and show in it the altar, bed^ and 
stove^ as likewise a picture and a stamp, of this de- 
vout prince. The church of the Franciscan convent 
is femous for the monument of the emperor Maxi- 
milian the first, which stands in the midst of it. It 
was erected to him by his grandson Ferdinand the 
first, who probably looked upon this emperor as the 
founder of the Austrian greatness. For as by his 
own marriage he annexed the Low Countries to the 
house of Austria, so by matching his son to Joane of 
Arragon he settled on his posterity the kingdom of 
Spain, and by the marriage of his grandson Ferdi- 
nand got into his family the kingdoms of Bohemia 
and Hungary. This monument is only honorary, 
for the ashes of the emperor lie elsewhere. On the 
top of it is a brazen figure of Maximilian on his 
knees, and on the sides of it a beautiful bas-relief 
representing the actions of this prince. His whole 
history is digested into twenty-four square pannels 
of sculpture in bas-relief; the subject of two of them 
is his confederacy with Henry the eighth, and the 
wars they made together upon France. On each 
side of this monument is a row of very noble brazen 
statues, much bigger than the life, most of them re- 
presenting such as were some way or other related 
to Maximilian. Among the rest is one that the 
fathers of the convent tell us represents king Ar- 
thur, the old British king. But what relation had 
that Arthur to Maximilian.^ I do not question, 
therefore^ but it was designed for prince ArthuTj 



TYROL, INSPRUCK, HALLE, etc. 245 

ielder brother of Henry the eighth, who had espoused 
Catharine, sister of Maximilian, whose divorce after- 
wards gave occasion to such signal revolutions in 
England. This churdi was built by Ferdinand the 
first. One sees in it a kind of offer at modern archie 
tecture, but at the same time that the architect has 
shown his dislike of the Gothic manner, one may see 
very well that in that age they were not, at least in 
this country, arrived at the knowledge of the true 
way. The portal, for example, consists of a Compo- 
site order unknown to the ancients ; the ornaments, 
indeed, are taken from them^ but so> put together 
that you see the volutes of the Ionic, the foliage of 
the Corinthian, and the uovali of the Doric, mixed 
without any regularity on the same capital. So the 
vault of the church, though broad enough, is en- 
cumbered with too many little tricks in sculpture^ 
It is, indeed, supported with single columns instead 
of those vast clusters of little pillars that one meets 
with in Gothic cathedrals ; but at the same time these 
columns are of no regular order, and at least twice 
too long for their diameter. There are other churches 
in the town, and two or three palaces which are of a 
more modern make, and built with a good fancy. I 
was shown the little Notre Dame, which is hand- 
somely designed, and topped with a cupola. It was 
made as an offering of gratitude to the blessed virgin, 
for having defended the country of the Tyrol against 
the victorious arms of Gustavus Adolphus, who could 
not enter this part of the empire affcer having overrun 
most of the rest. This temple was therefore built 
by the contributions of the whole country. At about 
half a leagues distance from Inspruck stands the 
castle of Amras, furnished with a prodigious quantity 
of medals, and many other sorts of rarities both in 

y3 



246 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

nature and art, for which I must refer the reader to 
monsieur Patin's account in his letters to the diilne 
of Wirtemberg, having myself had neither time xxar 
opportunity to enter into a particular examination of 
them. 

From Inspruck we came to Halle^ that lies at a 
league's distance on the same river. This place is 
particularly famous for its salt-works. There are in 
the neighbourhood vast mountains of a transparent 
kind of rock not unlike allum^ extremely solids and 
as piquant to the tongue as salt itself. Four or five 
hundred men aie always at work in these mountains^ 
where, as soon as they have hewn down any quan- 
tities of the rock, they let in their springs and 
reservoirs among their works. The water eats aw^ay 
and dissolves the particles of salt which are mixed 
in the stone, and is conveyed by long troughs and 
canals from the mines to the town of Halle, where 
it is received in vast cisterns, and boiled off from 
time to time. 

They make after the rate of eight hundred loaves 
a week, each loaf four hundred pound weight. This 
would raise a great reyenue to the emperor, were 
there here such a tax on salt as there is in France. 
At present he clears but two hundred thousand 
crowns a year, after having defrayed all the charges 
of working it. There are in Switzerland, and other 
parts of the Alps, several of these quarries of salt, 
that turn to very little account, by reason of the 
great quantities of wood they consume. 

The salt-works at Halle have a great convenience 
for fuel, which swims down to them on the river 
Inn. This river, during its course through the 
Tyrol, is generally shut up between a double range 
of mountains, which are most of them covered ^vith 



TYROL, INSPRUCK, HALLE, etc. 24t 

^oods of fir trees. Abundance of peasants are em**- 
ployed in the hewing down of the largest of these 
trees^ that, after they are barked and cut into shape, 
are tumbled down 4rom the mountains into the 
stream of the river, which carries them off to the 
salt-works. At Inspruck they take up vast quanti- 
ties for the convents and public officers^ who have a 
certain portion of it allotted them by the emperor : 
the rest of it passes on to Halle. There are gene- 
rally several hundted loads ailoat ; for they begin to 
cut above twenty-five leagues up the river above 
Halle, and there are other rivers that flow into 
the Inn, which bring in their contributions. These 
salt-works, and a mint that is established at the 
same place, have rendered this town, notwithstand- 
ing the neighbourhood of the capital city, almost as 
populous as Inspruck itself. The design of this 
mint is to work off part of the metals which are 
found in the neighbouring mountains ; where, as we 
were told, there are seven thousand men in constant 
employ. At Halle we took a boat to carry us to 
Vienna. The first night we lay at Rotenburg^ 
where is a strong castle above the town. Count 
Serini is still close prisoner in this castle, who, as 
they told us in the town^ had lost his senses by his 
long imprisonment and afflictions. The next day 
we dined at Kuffstain^ where there is a fortress on a 
high rock above the town, almost inaccessible on all 
sides; this being a frontier place on the dutchy of 
Bavaria, where we entered after about an hour's 
rowing from Kufistain. It was the pleasantest 
voyage in the world to follow the windings of this 
river Inn through such a variety of pleasing scenes 
as the course of it naturally led us. We had some- 
times on each side of us a vast extent of naked rocks 



248 REMARKS ON ITALY. 

and mountains^ broken into a thousand irregular 
steepe and predpices; in other places we saw a 
long forest oi fir trees so thick set together, that it 
was impossible to discover any ^of the soil they grew 
upon, and rising np so regularly one above another, 
as to give us the view of a whole wood at once. 
The time of the year, that had given the leaves of 
the trees so many different colours, completed the 
beauty of the prospect. But as the materials of a 
fine landscape are not always the most profitable to 
the owner of them, we met with but very little com 
or pasturage for the proportion of earth that we 
passed through, the lands of the Tyrol not beingable 
to feed the inhabitants. This long valley of the Tyrol 
lies inclosed on all sides by the Alps, though its 
dominions shoot out into several branches that lie 
among the breaks and hollows of the mountains. It 
is governed by three councils residing at Inspruck, 
one sits upon life and death, the other is for taxes 
and impositions, and a third for the common distri^ 
butions of justice. As these courts regulate them- 
selves by the orders they receive from the imperial 
court, so in many cases there are appeals from them 
to Vienna. The inhabitants of the Tyrol have many 
particular privileges above those of the other he- 
reditary countries of the emperor. For as they are 
naturally well fortified among their mountains, and 
at the same time border upon many different govern- 
ments, as the Orisons, Venetians, Swiss, Bavarians, 
etc. a severe treatment might tempt them to set up 
for a republic, or at least throw themselves under 
the milder government of some of their neighbours ; 
besides that their country is poor, and that the 
emperor draws considerable incomes out of its mines 
of salt and metal. They are these mines that fill 



TYROL, INSPRUCK, HALLE, etc. 249 

the country with greater numbers of people than it 
would be able to bear without the importation of 
com from foreign parts. The emperor has forts and 
citadels at the entrance of all the passes that lead 
into the Tyrol, which are so advantageously placed 
on rocks and mountains, that they command all the 
valleys and avenues that lie about them. Besides 
that, the country itself is cut into so many hills and 
inequalities, as would render it defensible by a very 
little army against a numerous enemy. It was, 
therefore, generally thought the duke of Bavaria 
would not attempt the cutting off any succours that 
were sent to prince Eugene ; or the forcing his way 
through the Tyrol into Italy. The river Inn, that 
had hitherto been shut up among mountains, passes 
generally through a wide open country during all its 
course through Bavaria, which is a voyage of two 
days, after the rate of twenty leagues a day. 



THE END.